Super Rugby Pacific: Inspiring underdogs steal the show
Phil Gifford presents six talking points from a Super Rugby Pacific round where inspiring underdogs stole the show.
We’ll get to what was supposed to happen in Super Rugby soon.But first, let’s hear it for the Fijian Drua and Moana Pasifika, who played above and beyond anything expected.
The Drua’s 27-24 win over the Hurricanes in Suva provided exciting drama. Moana coming desperately close to tipping over the Blues at Eden Park, the Blues saved by a fulltime penalty try to scrape in, 31-30, was just as spectacular.
In Suva the Drua had the benefit of a screaming, dancing, ecstatic crowd, who lived every twist and turn of the match.
If the Drua hadn’t won it would have been a travesty, given that Aussie referee Jordan Way foolishly didn’t go to the television match official and awarded a 51st-minute try to Canes prop Xavier Numia. Replays clearly showed the ball was dropped in Numia’s charge to the line.
Ultimately it didn’t matter, as brilliant running from wing Taniela Rakuro, who scored two tries, and centre Iosefo Masi showed that the saying “who dares wins” can come true. If the Drua played every game in Suva they’d be top-four material.
There was no fairy-tale finish for Moana Pasifika in Auckland, but their huge effort against the Blues deserved a better backdrop than the almost empty echo chamber that Eden Park was on Saturday.
It’s been a brutal season for Moana, but they drew on every drop of courage and pride to rattle the Blues to the point where captain Dalton Papali’i could barely contain righteous indignation at the errors his players were being forced into.
Coach Leon MacDonald ran on backline big guns Rieko Ioane and Finlay Christie but they too were harried and harassed by a Moana side who played out the match without a hint of the second-half woes that had plagued them in the nine losses they’d suffered in their previous nine games. It took a bruising finish by the Blues, forcing two yellow cards for Moana forwards, to earn a penalty try and victory in overtime, an ending that was an anti-climax for the ages.
Moana wing Timoci Tavatavanawai’s running was brilliant, and Blues hooker Kurt Eklund was relentless and effective. But the most influential player in the game was Moana’s first-five, 35-year-old Christian Lealiifano, who made scoring a 47th-minute try look simple, place-kicked accurately, and directed his potent backline with an ease you may have expected from a man who started his Super Rugby career 16 years ago.
There was nothing but good news for the Chiefs as they routed the Highlanders, 52-28 in Dunedin.
Scorching performances again from All Black candidates Shaun Stevenson and Emoni Narawa? Yes. A safe return for midfielder Anton Lienert-Brown? Yes. An All Blacks-level game from No 8 Luke Jacobson? Yes. And, most importantly, what looks like a straight march to knockout games at home as round-robin table toppers? Yes.
The Chiefs increasingly look the complete package, and with men as phlegmatic as coach Clayton McMillan and co-captain Sam Cane at the helm, fans can bet the farm on egos and expectations in the squad staying in check.
Meanwhile in Christchurch the Crusaders, after their loss to the Chiefs in Hamilton last week, showed they’re edging back to the form that makes them so dangerous in playoffs, as they whipped the Force, 48-13.
It would have been the upset of the round if the Force had won, but it was still an impressive effort from the Crusaders. Teenage halfback Noah Hotham, who first made his mark in a Hamilton Boys’ High First XV coached by his father, showed why the Crusaders were so keen to get him signed up, playing with huge energy and composure. It helped that the Crusaders pack was dominant throughout.
As an unabashed Will Jordan fan it’s wonderful to be able to record that his return to the game for the Crusaders was triumphant. Playing at fullback, where he surely belongs, he settled in quickly, and the pass he provided for Leicester Fainga’anuku to score in the 25th minute was a reminder that Jordan shapes as a once-in-a-generation player.
