Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

Chiefs versus Hurricanes back-to-back could’ve been career altering

Chiefs vs Hurricanes

The Hurricanes and Chiefs both did the job they needed to last night to keep their hopes of a home playoff game alive – win.

ADVERTISEMENT

The Chiefs fought off a fast-finishing Brumbies side 24-19 to end their season, while the Hurricanes blew away the Blues 42-24 at the Caketin. The Crusaders win on Friday night in their Southern derby against the Highlanders sealed their fate as Super Rugby’s number one seed for the playoffs.

This unfairly means the second and third best teams in the competition, the Hurricanes and Chiefs, will be forced to face off in a quarterfinal death match while the other two weaker conference winners enjoy the spoils of home ground advantage. What’s more, both these teams play in the final round next weekend providing back-to-back clashes of two of Super Rugby’s best teams – but it’s not as appealing as it sounds.

The Hurricanes lead the Chiefs by five competition points, which makes their equation a lot easier. Just secure a bonus point and be assured of home ground advantage in the rematch. The Chiefs, on the other hand, have to win and win big to stay in Hamilton another week – not only do they need the bonus point, they need to erase a points differential of 44 to jump them on the ladder.

The Highlanders in sixth position, for what it’s worth, face an even bigger mountain to climb if they want to leapfrog the Chiefs in fifth spot (a bonus point win by 105 points against the Rebels).

So what could’ve been a high stakes Chiefs-Hurricanes clash next weekend now looks more like a redundant exercise for both teams who look safe to finish the season where they sit now. Unless the Chiefs back themselves to beat the Hurricanes by 44 points, both sides have an incentive to rest key players as the standings can’t be altered.

Losing Damian McKenzie or Beauden Barrett in a meaningless game would then hand the other an advantage for the finals rematch. Securing a crucial bonus point win last night against the Blues was critical for the Hurricanes in making this a bridge too far for the Chiefs, who failed to get a bonus point from their fixture.

ADVERTISEMENT

This ultimately means we will miss out on McKenzie against Barrett in back-t0-back high stakes clashes. This could’ve been career altering for the two. McKenzie’s third test start against France put Barrett on notice that the All Blacks can fire with another 10 at the helm. In fact, they probably looked better than any stage of the series when Barrett was pulling the strings without McKenzie on the field.

The chance to battle twice in a row with home ground advantage on the line and then for everything in a do-or-die finals clash would’ve been the perfect way to challenge Barrett’s throne. In the same way Barrett’s form two years ago spelled the end of Aaron Cruden’s short reign, McKenzie could add more pressure to his case. On the flip side, handing the Chiefs another playoff exit after punishing them in their backyard could’ve been the exclamation mark for Barrett to see off McKenzie.

We will still get this matchup in two weeks time, but it will only be half as good as the prequel will be a trial match – Barrett likely won’t even play. The Hurricanes will get home ground advantage and play the contest that matters at Westpac Stadium where they are 8-0 this season, firmly stacking the odds in Barrett’s favour.

And the Hurricanes wouldn’t be in this cushy position if it wasn’t for Barrett’s miraculous intercept – that try sealed the bonus point which makes it near impossible for the Chiefs to jump them.

ADVERTISEMENT
Video Spacer

Barrett catching that tipped ball may be more important than he knows.

ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

F
Flankly 1 minute ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

4 Go to comments
N
Nickers 10 minutes ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

43 Go to comments
N
Nickers 39 minutes ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

I thought we made a lot of progress against that type of defence by the WC last year. Lots of direct running and punching holes rather than using width. Against that type of defence I think you have to be looking to kick on first phase when you have front foot ball which we did relatively successfully. We are playing a lot of rugby behind the gain line at the moment. They are looking for those little interchanges for soft shoulders and fast ball or off loads but it regularly turns into them battering away with slow ball and going backwards, then putting in a very rushed kick under huge pressure.


JB brought that dimension when he first moved into 12 a couple of years ago but he's definitely not been at his best this year. I don't know if it is because he is being asked to play a narrow role, or carrying a niggle or two, but he does not look confident to me. He had that clean break on the weekend and stood there like he was a prop who found himself in open space and didn't know what to do with the ball. He is still a good first phase ball carrier though, they use him a lot off the line out to set up fast clean ball, but I don't think anyone is particularly clear on what they are supposed to do at that point. He was used really successfully as a second playmaker last year but I don't think he's been at that role once this year. He is a triple threat player but playing a very 1 dimensional role at the moment. He and Reiko have been absolutely rock solid on defence which is why I don't think there will be too much experimentation or changes there.

43 Go to comments
TRENDING
TRENDING 'World-class finisher' offers All Blacks selection solution Mark Tele'a scores a double at Allianz Stadium
Search