Andy Capostagno RUGBY
It is now time to acknowledge that all of us have been guilty of damning the Super 12 champions of the past three years with faint praise. The Crusaders entered all three finals as rank outsiders and then beat the Blues (20-13), the Highlanders (24-19) and now the Brumbies (20-19).
By which it may be concluded that the Crusaders have several things going for them. Firstly they tend to win close games, secondly they know how to peak at the right time and thirdly they have the priceless ability to win away from home. If there is any justice in the world they will win next year in front of their adoring fans in Christchurch, having to date won all three finals away from home.
Perhaps we have been led astray about the true quality of the Crusaders by the previous All Black administration. John Hart was an Aucklander through and through and even found a way to drop Andrew Mehrtens in favour of Carlos Spencer some time ago.
South Africans sometimes believe this country is the sole bastion of provincialism, but the truth is that in one form or another nepotism is what makes the world go round. Now that Hart is out and Wayne Smith is in, a bunch of Crusaders have made the first All Black squad of the season. And who did Smith coach prior to replacing Hart? Three guesses and the first two don’t count.
More significant than the elevation of such as Ron Cribb and Mark Robinson to the national squad is the fact that Smith has done away with Taine Randell and replaced him as captain with Todd Blackadder. It will widely be regarded as a bad move outside New Zealand, because Blackadder has the ability to launch the All Blacks on yet another period of world domination.
The fact is that if Blackadder had led the All Blacks at the World Cup they might well have won. He would have been worth his place in the side which Randell, out of form and out of position at number eight, was not. Furthermore Hart left players such as Isitola Maka behind in New Zealand because he did not want his captain to be under pressure for his place.
All of which is to illustrate the fact that muddled thinking is endemic to a position that carries too much power. It is a fact that the New Zealand prime minister has an easier job than the All Black coach. And while we may argue that something similar applies in this country, South Africa is a country of more than 40-million people and only a tiny percentage of them live and die on the result of a rugby match.
It is different in New Zealand and that goes a long way towards explaining the repetitive success their rugby sides show at international level. It also points to the reason why no side outside of New Zealand has won the Super 12. This year it should have been the Brumbies, but hands numbed by the freezing conditions let the Australian outfit down in the first quarter and they never recovered. Sadly for Eddie Jones and his marvellous team they lost the first game of the season at Bruce Stadium (15-18 against the Blues) and the last.
And here comes that faint praise again. The Crusaders spoiled the party by beating the best side in the tournament. But if the Brumbies had really been the best side they would have won the final. Instead we had to put up with the one- eyed commentator Simon Poidevin blaming the South African referee (Andre Watson) for the fact that an Australian team had failed to win.
What really happened was that the Crusaders found a way to stop George Gregan without being penalised. Without his slick service from scrumhalf, Stephen Larkham was under pressure at flyhalf and the Brumbies went downhill from those basics.
The Crusaders have won three in a row because they analyse their opponents particularly well. You don’t hear people analysing their style of play because they really don’t have one. And surely the lesson of the Super 12 every year is adapt or die.
That’s why the most heart-warming performance by a South African team came not from the Cats, but the Stormers, the team that had the courage to change its game plan a month into the competition. By empowering his half-back pair of Dan van Zyl and Braam van Straaten, Alan Solomons went a long way towards rescuing the long-term future of the game on these shores.
Springbok coach Nick Mallett claims to have seen the light. The man who kept Breyton Paulse out of the World Cup semifinal because he feared the wing would lose the ball out wide, claims to have a new game plan based upon the pell-mell attack of the Stormers. If he speaks the truth and is successful in implementing his theories, another disappointing Super 12 for South African teams could be parlayed into a bright new era for Springbok rugby.