With two rounds of the new Super Rugby competition behind us some trends can be identified. In Australia the Waratahs have made their usual fast start, but history suggests they will fade at about the time the playoffs loom large.
The new franchise, the Melbourne Rebels, won its first match, which is probably a death knell for the Wallabies chances in the World Cup. It proved fatal for the coach of the Brumbies, the team defeated by the Rebels. Andy Friend was ousted on Monday and his assistant has taken over.
In New Zealand a slumbering giant has awakened. A trip to the House of Pain in Dunedin used to be high on every team’s list of things not to do. But a great generation that included the likes of Jeff Wilson, Taine Randell, Anton Oliver and Kees Meeuws left the Highlanders at around the same time — and seven lean years resulted.
It’s too soon to say that the Highlanders are contenders again, but, having won both of their opening games against the Chiefs and Hurricanes, they arrived in South Africa this week full of confidence. There was even a nod to the great sides of the past when flyhalf Tony Brown, at the ripe old age of 36, rejoined his old team from his pension plan in Japan.
The bad news for the Highlanders is that Brown’s presence is due to injuries to Lima Sopoaga and Colin Slade. The worse news is that they have to play the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld, which brings us neatly to the trends in South Africa.
It seems that last year’s finalists, the Bulls and the Stormers, have begun the season in less than showroom condition. The Bulls have played two impressive halves of rugby and have spent the other 80 minutes desperately defending their line against the Lions and Cheetahs. After a first week bye, the Stormers also lurched into action and needed an extremely late try to subdue the Lions.
Ironman
Nevertheless, both the Bulls and Stormers are unbeaten and it remains germane that good teams win when they ought to lose. We will see the real Bulls in their first home game this weekend. If they stutter in the manner of the two opening rounds, the Highlanders ought to be good enough to beat them. That is unlikely.
For one thing, the rust has demonstrably been removed from the great Fourie du Preez. His winning try against the Cheetahs was merely the icing on a cake made from sweet service to his pack and backs. As ever his decision-making marked him out as the best in the game. It was good to have him back in the same week that Juan Smith’s Achilles injury looked likely to remove the Springbok ironman from World Cup contention.
There remains, however, a suspicion that the Bulls’ wave has crested and that they are heading downhill. They need to nip that thought in the bud this weekend and remind the Highlanders that they are playing in the South African House of Pain, where away victories are as scarce as rocking-horse droppings.
The Stormers were largely unconvincing in beating the Lions 19-16, although things improved when Peter Grant came off the bench in the second half. They will surely miss Schalk Burger when the Cheetahs arrive this week, although the Bloemfontein side looks increasingly threadbare.
On that theme, it is already possible to imagine a Springbok World Cup squad that looks a good deal fresher than the one imagined by the coaching staff this time last year. This Super Rugby season only concludes in July and the rumours are flying that, as was the case in 2007, the Boks will field a second team in the truncated Tri-Nations in August.
Tower of strength
Imagine a world without Smith and Burger and a host of other stalwarts and the performances of some fringe players in Super Rugby suddenly becomes rather important. There must come a time, for instance, when the Sharks field Willem Alberts in his favourite position of eighthman, and Heinrich Brussow makes the step up from his rehabilitation in the Cheetahs’ Vodacom Cup team.
There must also come a time when the incumbent Springbok captain starts a game for the Sharks and that, too, will be an oedipal moment. Bismarck du Plessis has been a tower of strength for the national side and the Sharks in John Smit’s absence. The quality of his contribution may come into sharp focus if and when Smit takes his place on the current tour of the Antipodes. The Sharks’ coaching staff is sticking Elastoplast on the situation by saying that Smit covers all three of the front row positions. The fact is that you can’t captain a team, be it the Sharks or the Springboks, from the bench.
But if that is the greatest issue for the Sharks they are in a good space. Like the Bulls and Stormers they have won their opening games without getting out of third gear and they have the opportunity to gel as a team during an unusually benign set of overseas fixtures. It would be surprising if they failed to beat the Force in convincing fashion this week.