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Super Rugby star highlights how Australian sides can beat Kiwi teams this season

(Photo by Jeremy Ng/Getty Images)

A Super Rugby Pacific star has outlined how the Australian teams can beat their Kiwi counterparts in the competition later this season.

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The New Zealand sides are highly favoured to dominate the Australian franchises when they do battle in a few weeks’ time after having done so in recent editions of Super Rugby.

In years gone by, the Blues, Chiefs, Hurricanes, Crusaders and Highlanders have enjoyed a high level of success against their trans-Tasman rivals, which peaked between 2016 and 2018 when they went 40 games without loss against the Brumbies, Reds, Waratahs, Rebels and Force.

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Why the Brumbies are the team to beat in Super Rugby Pacific | Aotearoa Rugby Pod

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Why the Brumbies are the team to beat in Super Rugby Pacific | Aotearoa Rugby Pod

That disparity came under the microscope again last year after the Brumbies and Reds were the only Australian teams to register victories against Kiwi sides, with each franchise winning a game apiece from 25 total matches throughout the competition.

While cross-border matches are yet to take place this season due to the Covid-enforced rescheduling of multiple fixtures, the Kiwi outfits are expected to continue their dominance over the Australians when they begin to square off from April 22 onwards.

However, Crusaders halfback Bryn Hall has illustrated what the Australian teams need to do in order to buck the trend and push for places in the Super Rugby Pacific quarter-finals in the upcoming rounds.

Speaking on the Aotearoa Rugby Pod, Hall highlighted a key difference between the matches played in New Zealand and Australia thus far in Super Rugby Pacific.

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The five-time title-winning Maori All Black noted that matches played between Kiwi teams have averaged a ball-in-play time of about 39-40 minutes, up to eight minutes longer than that of matches played in Australia.

According to Hall, those figures reflect that New Zealand teams play a faster brand of rugby than the Australian sides, who he said must adapt to that style of play if they are to beat the Kiwi franchises over the next couple of months.

“One stat that one of our analysis guys brought up was just around the difference in ball-in-play, the difference between Super Rugby Aotearoa and Super Rugby AU,” Hall said, referencing the New Zealand and Australian teams in Super Rugby Pacific.

“At the moment, the ball-in-play in New Zealand games is roughly 39-40 minutes in games… in the Australian games, there’s only been one game that’s been at that 38 minutes level of ball-in-play.

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“It’s pretty much at that 32-minute mark of ball-in-play, so I think the ability of the Australian teams to be able to adapt and play more of a high-tempo game of [making] more tackles, having the ball in play and under that fatigue, I think that’s going to be a crucial part for the Australian teams moving forward because the ball is in play a lot more for New Zealand teams.

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“Four-to-five minutes might not seem a lot for our viewers, but, actually, as players, having that extra time in game is actually a big part of running more metres, having longer phase counts and putting teams under more pressure.

“I think if the Australians can adapt to that when they do play the New Zealand teams, it’ll set them up really well to maybe get results in the back part of the year.”

Hall added that, of the Australian teams, the table-topping Brumbies loom as the strongest contenders to challenge the New Zealand sides after navigating the first six rounds of Super Rugby Pacific without defeat.

“I think the balance around their game is where I’m most impressed with them,” Hall told the Aotearoa Rugby Pod.

“Set piece-wise, they’ve got the ability to go to their lineout maul which has been a weapon for them over the years.

“They scrummage well but, I think as well, when they get their backs in the game, whether that be Tom Banks or Tom Wright, the amount of pace and x-factor they have out wide, they do it really well when they get the opportunities to be able to get there.

“I think their physicality in the breakdown as well, when they’re getting those big [ball-carrying] forwards going forward and on top of teams, it’s bringing the likes of Tom Wright, and their midfield pairings as well, to be able to have opportunities and being able to attack in their phase-play shape.

“They are sitting nicely and, I guess for them, it’s being able to accumulate as many points as they [can] – which they have, they’re undefeated – and then it gives them really good confidence [to beat] us New Zealand teams at the backend of the competition.”

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J
JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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