“It’s one victory,” he said this week, “in a long campaign.” Bysheer luck of the draw, the competition now offers a clash in Hamilton on Friday night between the Crusaders and the Chiefs that will tell us in much greater detail whether beating the Canes was a fleeting flash of form, or a sign that the Crusaders are genuinely on the way back.
The Chiefs have every reason to feel confident. A home game on the heels of beating last year’s champions, the Blues. A starting team that have so much depth Chiefs coach Clayton McMillan can afford to have one of the stars at Eden Park last week, halfback Cortez Ratima, on the bench.
On the other side of the coin, the Crusaders’ injury list now totals 13 players. But compared to the 2024 season, having just one injury last weekend, to halfback Noah Hotham, almost feels like a clean getaway.
The TAB has the Chiefs as two-to-one hot favourites to win. Don’t bet one cent you can’t totally afford, but if there’s a major upset this weekend, it could be in Hamilton.
Stars that shine
There are attacking players on both sides on Friday night who can provide genuine excitement. Fullbacks Damian McKenzie, for the Chiefs, and Will Jordan, for the Crusaders, are electrifying runners who have shown they can rip apart defensive lines at international level too.
The Chiefs’ recruit from sevens, wing Leroy Carter, gets a chance to shine again, as he did in Auckland last weekend. At 86kg, he’s a fearless, darting reminder that wings don’t always need to be as big as a flanker to play at the highest levels.
Backlash under the roof?
The pride they took in their performances was a key issue in the Blues winning last year’s title.
So there will have been some deep soul-searching at the Blues after the Chiefs outmuscled and outplayed them in the second half for that convincing 25-14 win at Eden Park last weekend.
How much that defeat galvanised the Blues will become very clear in Dunedin against the Highlanders on Saturday night.
As the only game this weekend where good conditions and a dry ball are guaranteed by a roof, there’s a chance for the Blues to unleash the likes of Mark Tele’a and Rieko Ioane. If they do opt for a more adventurous style, this could be the showcase of the weekend.
Slugging it out up front won’t beat the Blues. The Highlanders, so close to a memorable win against a Wallabies-stacked Waratahs last Saturday, will need to employ all the attacking daring and courage their young, but highly promising, side contain.
The Blues have a chance to get their season under way in Dunedin. Photo / Photosport
Not taken lightly
Queensland Reds coach Les Kiss has taken few chances with his team to take on Moana Pasifika in Brisbane on Saturday afternoon. There are 10 Wallabies in the Reds’ starting XV, and three Australian test forwards on the bench.
On the one hand, it’s a reflection of how seriously the Reds are taking the Moana challenge. On the other, it means Ardie Savea and his Moana men will need to be right on top of their game to have any chance of winning.
When the Hurricanes and the Fijian Drua run on to McLean Park in Napier on Saturday afternoon, the best possible news for the Canes is that the temperature should be a mild 22C.
The Drua at home are a lethal force, as they handle the extremes of Fijian heat with ease. For the Canes in Napier, the playing field will feel entirely level, which is why there should be a recovery for them after the shock of their first-round loss.
Xavier Numia of the Hurricanes. Photo / Photosport
Lock them in
Clever coaches have often found ways to subvert new laws. But it’s hard to see how a team that wants a slower-paced game can beat the simplicity of a 30-second time limit to speed up forming scrums and lineouts.
The trial of the new laws, that helped make the first Super round so enjoyable, will be played out in the end-of-year internationals in Europe.
Let’s devoutly hope that the referees running the tests involving England, Ireland and France will be as tough as Nic Berry was in Christchurch last Friday night.
Pushing the game on when Ethan Blackadder was having a dislocated finger forced back into place may have felt a little draconian. But it certainly let the Crusaders and the Hurricanes know that Berry was deadly serious about keeping play moving. In hindsight, Berry provided a perfect template for how the game should be run in 2025.
Rugby needs to grasp everything it can to make the sport more attractive to spectators. My (probably impossible) dream is to also revert to no tactical substitutes, or at least reach a compromise where, at the most, just a couple of tactical subs are allowed.
A game played by fit, mobile athletes has so much more to offer than a series of tedious collisions between aerobically challenged weight-lifters.
But stopping endless scrum resets and banning lengthy on-field player committee meetings before lineouts is a promising start.
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