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The final that Super Rugby Pacific needs

(Photos by Joe Allison/Getty Images and Michael Bradley/Getty Images)

It has been five long years since a Super Rugby final was played in a stadium worthy of what should be the competition’s marquee event.

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The all-Kiwi showdown between the Blues and Crusaders will be played in front of a sell-out crowd at Eden Park, which will bring some much needed glory, buzz and attention to Super Rugby Pacific.

The Crusaders’ latest dynasty began in 2017 when they travelled to Johannesburg to play the Lions at Ellis Park in front of more than 61,000 fans, a record attendance for a Super Rugby fixture.

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Aotearoa Rugby Pod | Episode 16

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Aotearoa Rugby Pod | Episode 16

After that, Super Rugby’s final was played twice in a makeshift ground at a racing track hobbled together with temporary stands and scaffolding in 2018 and 2019.

With each country having to make do with a domestic-only versions of the competition in 2020 and 2021 due to the spread of the pandemic, there was no final in the inaugural Super Rugby Aotearoa two years ago.

However, the Kiwi-only league last year staged a final, which returned to Orangetheory Stadium at the Addington racetrack.

Without a modern arena to play in, it was not the spectacle that was deserved to crown their achievements, despite the Crusaders’ brilliant run on the field. As such, Super Rugby as a competition missed out as well.

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In need of a massive boost in stature, the Blues-Crusaders final at Eden Park this Saturday will give Super Rugby a historic showdown in the competition’s history, pitting two generational 10s against each other.

Richie Mo’unga is an all-time great Super Rugby player. That much is already guaranteed. He is in the conversation as the competition’s best player of all-time.

The fleet-footed first-five helped secure three titles in a row behind what was essentially the All Blacks forward pack with dynamic playmaking.

Despite having the riches up front that laid the platform for success, the Crusaders could always count on Mo’unga to create something, slip through the line and conjure up points with magical plays.

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On the way to those second and third Super Rugby titles in 2018 and 2019, Mo’unga helped eliminate Beauden Barrett’s Hurricanes in consecutive semi-finals.

In the 2018 final, Mo’unga’s fingerprints were all over the key moments. He set up the first try with a long ball to Seta Tamanivalu, while his line break from a kick return set-up the second to propel the Crusaders to a 20-6 half-time lead over the Lions en route to a 37-18 victory.

When the competition went internal in 2020, Mo’unga had no rivals. The 28-year-old was the competition’s runaway MVP, leading in just about every attacking stat you could dream of.

His five-year run as part of a dominant Crusaders outfit with three Super Rugby titles and two Super Rugby Aotearoa trophies is unprecedented.

If Mo’unga is instrumental in leading the Crusaders to the Super Rugby Pacific title over the Blues this weekend, it will be a monumental moment for the 32-test international, even after all he has achieved.

That’s because the Crusaders are on the downward trajectory of their apex, which was proven in a season where they endured more losses than usual and were undone by the Blues in a thrilling contest in Christchurch.

Mo’unga has lost much of the public adulation that came with his initial rise to the All Blacks after a string of subpar performances in the test arena. The Richie Mo’unga that turns it on in red-and-black has not been seen enough in just black.

A couple of great displays against the Wallabies and a pool stage showing against South Africa does little to outweigh the growing list of suspect ones.

The 2019 World Cup semi-final loss to England. Both 16-all draws in Wellington against the Springboks and Wallabies in ’19 and ’20, respectively. The historic first-up loss to Los Pumas in Sydney. The end-of-year tour tests against France and Ireland in ’21.

Mo’unga’s contribution to that list of defeats means the tide has turned back in Barrett’s favour as the preferred occupant of New Zealand’s No 10 jersey.

Barrett has accrued a glittering 101-test All Blacks career that is filled with match-winning and game-defining moments which, quite frankly, Mo’unga isn’t anywhere near replicating.

There is no comparison to be made. It’s not even David vs Goliath. It’s just Goliath. Barrett is a consistent big game player on the international stage, while Mo’unga hasn’t been, despite his Super Rugby success.

While Mo’unga has built into this Super Rugby Pacific season following a contract-enforced rest period, Barrett has had a rejuvenation at the Blues, rediscovering his top-end speed and lethal running game behind an all-star forward pack.

The 30-year-old has been out-and-out the most influential player in this year’s competition. Every major Blues victory has had Barrett’s influence when it comes to big scoring moments and big plays.

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Barrett stands on the cusp of winning his second Super Rugby title after guiding the Hurricanes to a maiden crown in 2016 and, in doing so, he would become the first starting No 10 to win a Super Rugby title with multiple teams.

He is on fire and the Blues have proven themselves to be the best team in the competition, but few would rule out the Crusaders from denying them this weekend.

It wouldn’t be the first time that a South Island team has come north to rain on Barrett’s parade in a final.

That is what makes this final so intriguing, for both Barrett and Mo’unga as well as the Blues and Crusaders, respectively, after three years of waiting for a moment like this.

In 2020, the Blues-Crusaders showdown at Eden Park would have been spectacular, but lockdown restrictions robbed everyone of the final round fixture.

The Blues had almost pulled off a stunning upset in Christchurch earlier that season, and a return leg in Auckland was much-anticipated. Perhaps the most enticing aspect of that match was that Crusaders icon Dan Carter may have debuted for the Blues.

A year later, the buzz of Super Rugby Aotearoa’s first iteration had worn off a bit. Barrett was on sabbatical in Japan and the fixture was played so early in the season that Eden Park was barely half full.

Mo’unga and the Crusaders put on a show on that day, but the clash did not have any hype. The return clash in Christchurch was just as lopsided.

This year the teams played once, and it was the best game of the season by far as the Blues pulled off a slice of history with their first victory in Christchurch since 2004.

Now we have the sequel on the final day of the season, at the biggest stadium in the country, with the title on the line between two old rivals.

Barrett and Mo’unga will both be playing at 10 for their respective teams, two great players facing off in a meaningful fixture that will form an irreversible part of their Super Rugby stories.

The final that Super Rugby Pacific needs is here.

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1 Comment
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sean 874 days ago

Super Rugby was Ill 5 years ago but now it’s dead altogether.. the SA teams provided a balance to the all out running which made it a proper experience but since their departure it’s lost all global appeal.

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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 11 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
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Nickers 40 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.

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