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The tale of two tries in the Super Rugby final
By Ben Smith
The Chiefs had the Crusaders’ number for the third time this year, but a remarkable show of fight and never-say-die attitude from Scott Robertson’s side made the most of fortuitous situations given to them.
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It was astounding that the Chiefs were in it right to the very end after three yellow cards, playing for nearly 30 minutes of the contest down to 14 men. They shouldn’t have been in the game, but they were.
And when it comes down to it, there are two fortuitous situations that swayed this final in the Crusaders’ favour.
One was a disallowed try for the Chiefs and one was a Crusaders try where play was allowed to go on after a forward pass, but by the book, both should have been scrubbed.
A knock-on, forward pass or offside are all valid reasons for a TMO intervention on a scoring review, but only if they occurred in the immediate two phases of play beforehand.
Damian McKenzie jumping the gun on the deliberately overthrown lineout was able to be called back only because the Chiefs scored directly on that phase.
As soon as the try was scored, referee Ben O’Keeffe had doubts about McKenzie’s starting position and immediately went to his assistants for a discussion before referring judgement to the TMO.
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Had the Crusaders’ defence been a little better and lasted more than two phases, the Chiefs likely would have been out to a 25-15 lead and potentially 27-15, without an on-field call over McKenzie happening immediately.
The Chiefs were punished harshly, but rightly so.
The Crusaders on the other hand, benefitted from having an egregious forward pass by Jack Goodhue not picked up by the on-field officials on halfway.
The Crusaders kicked at the next ruck, then the Chiefs had to clear their line into touch, handing the visitors a line out. They then scored from a fantastic set-piece launch play through Richie Mo’unga over two phases.
At that point even if the TMO Brendon Pickerill wanted to go back to the forward pass, he couldn’t, having occurred three phases earlier.
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The try was from a different Crusaders’ possession, but it came directly from the decision not to pull up the forward pass, something Chiefs head coach Clayton McMillan was rightly unhappy about in his post-match evaluation.
Correct but perhaps overzealous officiating on the Chiefs’ no try was not equalled earlier as the Crusaders received a major slice of luck leading into Mo’unga’s try.
Those two fate-altering plays undoubtedly shaped the outcome of the final. Given the tightness of the result, it cannot be denied it gave the Crusaders help.
However the Chiefs will rue the decision-making in the final quarter where they held a 20-15 lead before Sam Cane’s yellow card.
A passage of attacking play lasting 12 phases inside the Crusaders’ 22 ended up losing ground before Leicester Fainga’anuku snaffled a ruck turnover.
The Crusaders defence was strong and proving so. The Chiefs were clearly running out of puff having spent 20 minutes down a man. The playmakers did not have a read on the situation or respect the Crusaders enough.
There were multiple opportunities to set up for a drop goal and take an eight point buffer but they kept trying to fall into a shape and attack wide.
Scoring plays in finals are limited and when you do finally need the points, the chance to get them might not come.
With 15 minutes to play, it was early enough to take a chance but not late enough for it to be the only one.
A missed drop goal isn’t the end of the world with possession coming back. They didn’t take it or even think about it.
The Chiefs next chance to score, which came when they did need the points down 22-20, came from a 52 metre penalty goal with less than four minutes to go, which McKenzie missed.
The last bizarre Chiefs’ possession came from a botched lineout throw that was knocked-on by Crusaders flanker Dominic Gardiner.
The ball was knocked on roughly 43 metres out from the Crusaders’ try line and O’Keeffe called advantage to the Chiefs, but the home side only went backward from there once jumping on the loose ball, never making it back anywhere near where the ball was fumbled.
O’Keeffe did not stop play and go back for the scrum, judging that the Chiefs had taken advantage despite continually losing ground, eventually back inside their own 22 where they eventually lost possession and the game.
There was still three minutes left at the beginning of that possession and the Chiefs refused to kick and put the Crusaders into a pressure zone where they must clear.
Aside from O’Keeffe’s puzzling call, the game management from the Chiefs was poor, running into the red and black wall for continual losses.
The Crusaders banked on the Chiefs’ losing this game some how through their own doing. Which they did in the end by overplaying at the wrong times and through poor discipline, despite being the better side.
And the Crusaders got a healthy slice of luck too, which is just what they needed.
The Chiefs know they have just been conned out of a title by savvy bunch of Crusaders who played a smarter game on the night.
Which will make the loss all the more painful for them.
Good article but left the big reality out, the Chiefs were robbed by the officiating. Officials gave the Crusader's 29 points (counting the ridiculous over officiating of the ruled out lineout play which the ref turned into giving the Crusader's a lineout try to maul off on the Chiefs line). I'm sick of watching referees send players off for innocuous reasons, Lukes yellow was ludicrous and rugbys power brokers should take the ability of referee's to send people off away unless it's foul play. Spectators want to watch 15 versus 15. The loose ball Cane picked up again a law change to allow ball sitting around unprotected to be claimed. Rugby was the loser in the night with everyone now talking about the referee, we want refs to be near invisible and rugbys power brokers need to look at rugby league for guidance on how to stop pedantic whistling dominating and deciding contests. The Crusader's were never going to win that game without the terrible one sided refereeing. And why in earth they choose a ref from the Crusader's catchment just highlights how stupid the NZRU is. This referee is a nice guy and threats against him are unacceptable but he doesn't appear to know how to let the best team win and the game flow, it is time someone sat him down and said, 'Ben the game is not about you, please don't try to dominate, the crowd isn't there to see you'. The forward pass was a disgrace but that was on the linesman, the lack of advantage to chiefs with 4 minute's left was also terrible refereeing, they needed that scrum to have a chance to recover from all the poor refereeing decisions.
If you're going to go into the weeds, you should consider then the chiefs try scored after jocobsen ripped it from jordan illegally the play before, that one should be scrubbed too. Pointless this type of thinking
Bloody hell, what a propaganda piece for the Chiefs.
DMac's try was disallowed through TMO real time word into the refs mic (pretty standard at try time rather than "overzealous") which shows he was at least 3 metres offside. DMac put his hand up, no probs.
Richie's try came after Narawa fielded a Drummond kick post blatant forward pass & launched a counterattack. After beating 3 defenders Narawa decided to kick for touch despite a 3 to 1 overlap. "Advantage" so to speak over? Line-out at halfway-ish, Saders score a brilliant try.
Also, the "puzzling" short line-out advantage was preceded by the Chiefs throw-in which was crooked as heck. No wonder Gardiner spilled it, he had to run so far past the line-out to get it. Standard advantage call though imo.
But if you want to compare tries then you need to rule out Stevenson's try. BOTH Will Jordan's knees were clearly on the ground when Jacobson ripped the ball in the lead up.
And let's not mention ALBs non red card. A full 20 mins with 14 against the Saders can be lethal.
The moral of the story? Overall the refs had zero influence on the result of this hard fought match. It could've gone either way. The real difference between the teams was LEADERSHIP.
Sam Canes poor on-field leadership culminating in him letting his side down when they needed him the most at minute 72 was the straw that broke the back of their 5pt lead. No wonder he refused to go to the post match press conference (weak, cowardly, disrespectful, unbelievable from any skipper let alone the AB skip imo). Now contrast Barrett, Whitelock, Taylor, Mounga, Goodhue, all plotting, planning, calming, directing, bossing etc. Chalk & cheese.
The McKenzie no-try was not "overzealous", he was about 8 metres offside in an area of the game where even an inch can make a huge difference, and without it the try could not have been scored. O'Keeffe's "puzzling call" not to go back for a scrum advantage was standard across Super Rugby, with scrum advantage consistently equalling a 1-2 phase security against turnovers or knock-ons.
The Crusaders' forward pass should have been picked up but it was midfield and there was a subsequent change of possession breaking the chain of causation. I agree the missed forward pass was unlucky but it's the sort of minor unluckiness that happens 100 times a game that the best teams can turn into a major advantage.
ALB should have been in the bin for the entire game, not 10 minutes, so I'd say the Chiefs enjoyed advantageous refereeing far outweighing a mere forward pass. Not to mention some of the ruck penalties that went against the Crusaders in the second half. One of these penalties near the end of the game rewarded a Chiefs pilfer even though the tackler tripped the Crusaders' cleaners. If the penalty had gone against the Chiefs as it usually has for the last 2 years, this would have resulted in 3 points for the Crusaders (or a maul with a likely 7 points).
'Poor discipline, outsmarted' etc. Agreed. Put those comments alongside the praise for the leadership shown by the Crusaders, particularly Whitelock and Barrett, and Cane throwing the game with his yellow card, and I wonder why the debate about Cane as captain seems to have gone away? He was missing for the last 10 minutes of the ABs' best finish last year too (Joburg). Quite apart from his right to be there as starting No. 7. I find it bizarre to listen to Jeff Wilson on Breakdown advocating dropping Savea to the bench because we need more size in our loose forward trio, and not mentioning that we have a starting 7 in Cane who is a lightweight in comparison to Savea and Papali'i. Eddie Jones is so smart - Hooper may not be his starting 7 but is there as co-captain for his experience and temperament, giving Eddie room to move in terms of his starting XV.