Blues overcome Covid set-backs, Crusaders suffer first loss in 11 matches, White Ferns World Cup chances hand by a thread and more from the weekend's sporting action. Video / Getty Images / Photosport
OPINION:
Phil Gifford presents his talking points from this weekend's action in Super Rugby Pacific - and a tribute to Stephen Jones.
Rugby this good deserves an audience
As someone who is triple-vaxxed, and has only got angry with Covid-19, not politicians, health officials, or Bill Gates, I'll be oneof many in rugby deeply offended if the plea by Super Rugby bosses for a level playing field over crowds is ignored by Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson.
I wouldn't touch a tinfoil hat with the antennae from a 5G tower, but it's nonsense that at the Cricket World Cup here crowds can be 20 per cent of the venue capacity, but Super Rugby Pacific can only have half that.
The sad thing for rugby fans is that the Super Rugby Pacific competition caught fire in the weekend, with the Chiefs' 24-21 win over the Crusaders in Christchurch. This was a game that had test-match intensity, courage and skill, but was played in front of a crowd barely bigger than club games I watched as a kid in Waihi in the 1960s.
I'm not suggesting rugby gets better treatment than any other sport, but come on Grant, at least give the game a fair deal.
This was worth the wait
If we're being brutally honest a lot of Super Rugby Pacific has been pretty messy. There have been some exciting finishes in early rounds, but they've often been based on mediocre defence allowing late tries.
But when the Chiefs came to Christchurch on Saturday, there was a lift to grand-final level, in every aspect of the game, from both sides, almost from the off.
Take Braydon Ennor's try in the 44th minute, which saw the ball in play after a Chiefs' goal-line dropout for a breathtaking 90 seconds, with the ball recycled seven times, and not for tedious one-off running. Instead the ball was passed 27 times, before six men ran and handled in the final move that saw Ennor score.
A lesser team, down 21-10, might have crumbled, but in the last five minutes the Chiefs would match the skill and daring of Ennor's try not once, but twice, with terrific tries to Shaun Stevenson and Rameka Poihipi, to secure the win.
Hail to the Chiefs for getting past a brick wall
Finding space on the outside to put Stevenson and Poihipi in was reward for the Chiefs' fitness and belief, and also to the class of first-five Bryn Gatland, whose skip pass for the match-winning Poihipi try was a perfect example of grace under pressure.
It took something special to down the Crusaders, whose defence, completing 90 per cent of more than 200 tackle attempts, was extraordinary.
As proof of how gritty and organised the Crusaders' tackling lines were, the explosive Chiefs' No 8 Pita Gus Sowakula, whose brilliant running has been taking them well over the gain line all season, was limited to an average of just three metres for every carry in Christchurch. And to see David Havili, spotting Sowakula 22kg, and Bryn Hall, spotting him 17kg, somehow hold him up on the tryline in the 54th minute almost defied belief.
After nearly clawing themselves home a week ago against the Blues, if the Chiefs can beat the Hurricanes next week in Wellington the race to the top of the local table becomes nail biting.
Shaun Stevenson scored a terrific try for the Chiefs against the Crusaders. Photo / photosport.nz
Whatever was said at halftime, it worked
Only a deluded barfly in Balclutha would have expected the Highlanders to be up 13-3 after the first 40 minutes in Albany against the Blues. The Blues were, in blunt terms, rubbish in the first half, dropping the ball eight times, and kicking aimlessly. But the second half was a revelation, and the final score of 32-20 to the Blues was an accurate reflection of how they played out the game.
There's plenty of class in the ranks of the Blues, whether it's the speed and increasing spatial awareness of Rieko Ioane at centre, Mark Telea ghosting past tackles, or Dalton Papalii's menacing presence in the loose. When it all clicks they're lethal on attack. They'll need to jell from the first whistle next Sunday when they face a deeply stung Crusaders in Christchurch.
Possibly the most under-rated player in the World Cup-winning teams of 2011 and 2015 was blindside flanker Jerome Kaino. I'm inclined to agree with the Spasifik magazine blogger who wrote in 2011, "Jerome Kaino and Superman once fought each other on a bet. The loser had to wear his underwear outside his pants."
Kaino made the blindside a no-go zone, legally but fearsomely, by being not so much a tackler as a demolition man. The search for a new man in the No 6 jersey in the All Blacks has been exhaustive, but never quite conclusive.
As it happens, three blindsiders had five-star games this round.
The Highlanders' Shannon Frizell has always looked strong and tough enough to fill Kaino's boots, but has never quite matched Kaino's skill levels. As a potential upset for the Highlanders spluttered out at North Harbour Stadium, Frizell stayed indomitable, showing speed in his great 73rd-minute try and, perhaps more importantly, providing some classy offloads too. Coaches always look for growth in players, and Frizell demonstrated exactly that against the Blues.
Crusader Ethan Blackadder's workrate continues to stagger. He made 23 tackles against the Chiefs, and if anything looks harder edged and stronger than he was last year when his form forced him into the All Blacks.
And at Albany a new star emerged for the Blues, Taine Plumtree, the son of All Black assistant-coach John. Taine, at 22, has the energy of an award-winning high country huntaway, which he complements with a one-handed offload so slick Sonny Bill Williams would be impressed.
Shannon Frizell looks capable of wearing the All Blacks' No 6 jersey. Photo / Getty
Shock! Horror! Who could disagree with Stephen Jones this time?
Having only rubbished French referee Romain Poite in print about 837 times for his pathetic refereeing in the last test of the 2017 Lions tour, it was interesting to see another French ref, Mathieu Raynal, copping it hard and strong from our old friend at The Sunday Times in London, Stephen Jones, who thought Poite got it right in '17.
In the first minute of the test at Twickenham, where Ireland beat England 32-15, Raynal, quite rightly, red carded English lock Charlie Ewels for a high tackle which led to a sickening clash of heads that concussed Irish lock James Ryan.
But as for how Raynal went in the next 79 minutes, for once I totally agree with our man at the Sunday Times, who said, "Referees are only human and it is a human frailty to do well by the team you have denuded and that is exactly what Mr Raynal did – perhaps subconsciously. Raynal made an attempt, so it seemed, to level up the odds.
"For the rest of the first half he murdered Ireland at all times, gave three completely nonsensical penalties against the visiting team for deliberately wheeling the scrum and allowed play to carry on after one of the most blatant of forward passes ever thrown."
