Andy Capostagno rugby
Once a competition that involves just 12 teams has been going for three weeks it should be relatively simple to plot its outcome. But it has been a strange Super 12 and the overriding impression is summed up by the phrase that Terry Collier wanted put on his gravestone: “None the wiser.”
One team, the New South Wales Waratahs, has won all three of its games and, with at least four tries in each, has a full house of bonus points. It would be tempting to say that Bob Dwyer has turned the perennial under-achievers into world beaters overnight, but that would be to ignore the evidence.
For the Waratahs have played all three of their matches at the Sydney Football stadium and two of their admittedly impressive wins have come against the Chiefs and the Bulls, franchises that, if there were such a thing, would be in the relegation zone year in and year out.
The third win against the Stormers was closer than the 35-7 score might suggest and they needed every last minute of injury time to conjure up the fourth try. The Stormers have taken a lot of abuse for the way they played that day, but until the final quarter the Waratahs were almost as bad.
Things might have been different had the New Zealand referee Kelvin Deaker not adopted a criminally hands-off approach that allowed more turnover ball than even the new law applications should find acceptable.
Which brings up the next Super 12 imponderable. Teams such as the Cats have quickly come to terms with the new mania for staying on your feet at the breakdown. Suddenly, a month into the competition, they will be asked to change their thought processes following the International Rugby Board’s (IRB) recent meeting.
The decision has been made to relax the draconian laws governing the breakdown, but as usual it is up to the poor old referee to plot the difference between an accidental fall and a malicious attempt to stop the opposition from challenging for the ball.
What this means is that teams that have found a way to avoid falling over may have to become less vertically minded and that teams who have hitherto struggled to comply may be able to go back to the old method of clearing the ball by diving on defenders.
When the Super 12 began five years ago with a torrent of tries on a weekly basis it was safe to assume that the law changes implemented after the 1995 World Cup had effectively found a way to make rugby union entertaining and accessible to all. But by the time the All Blacks had beaten the Wallabies 39-35 at Stadium Australia last July the IRB had seen enough. In that game each team played with such skill that they were able to keep possession for five minutes at a time and drive the ball up the field in successive phases in the manner made famous by gridiron.
The wise men of the IRB decided that what the game was really supposed to be based upon was a fair contest for the ball and so they empowered the defending team by making referees apply the letter of the law at the tackle. Which is not a bad philosophy until you remember that you actually need to be able to reward the attacking team for having the skill to win the ball in the first place. That means allowing the attacking team to take the ball from the tackle into the next phase by ignoring the fact that certain players happen to have joined the ruck on their knees or, in some cases, on their bellies.
Now the referees are being asked to interpret the intention of each player who is not actually standing upright. And, in the not too distant future, they may be asked to eschew red and yellow and take the field with a pack of Tarot cards.
Assuming, however, that the referees have their ducks in a row, we may know a little more about the future of this year’s competition by the end of the weekend.
The Waratahs have their first away game, against the Cats at Ellis Park. It will be the last game at the Johannesburg base until May 11 and the Cats need to get back on the bus. They had ample opportunities to beat the Brumbies last week, but failed to translate forward superiority into tries.
The Waratahs will bring greater forward power to the contest than the Brumbies and with Dwyer at the helm it is safe to assume that they will have done their homework. They will know that the key to beating the Cats is to disrupt them at set-piece time and upon that basis the match could have a very old-fashioned look to it.
Meanwhile in Durban, the Sharks will hope to keep riding the wave that has taken them to two one-point victories in a row. Wisely coach Rudolph Straeuli has made no great predictions for his team, but after the desperate hurly-burly of the first two weeks there were definite signs against the Brumbies that the Sharks are finding their feet at this level.
They have been helped in that respect by the emergence of Trevor Halstead as an inside centre who will challenge for Springbok honours this year. Halstead is the glue that holds the Sharks backline together and it will be intriguing to see how he copes with the power and pace of the Hurricanes midfield on Saturday.