Four teams without a win after two rounds of rugby’s Super 14 have been drawn against each other in the third round starting on Friday, increasing pressure to lift their games.
Australia’s Western Force play the Waikato Chiefs on Friday, and the Auckland Blues meet the Queensland Reds on Saturday in matches which may determine which of those teams remain competition contenders.
The enlargement of the southern hemisphere championship and the increased length of the season has not reduced the impact on teams of a run of early season losses. Ten of the competition’s 14 teams, including South African newcomers the Cheetahs, have managed wins in the first two rounds making the position of winless teams more acute.
The Blues, who lost to the Wellington Hurricanes and Otago Highlanders, have worked this week to harness talent implicit in a starting 15 including nine All Blacks.
Former international flanker Troy Flavell has returned from a spell in Japan to bolster the Blues’ pack, though their weakness in weeks one and two has been an erratic backline. Coach David Nucifora said the Blues’ emphasis on attack in its opening matches produced errors the team could not afford.
”We do have to choose our moments [to attack] far better than we’ve done so far,” he said.
”We have to decide that we’re not a team that’s going to make all the running in every game for 80 minutes.”
Nucifora said other teams would suffer two losses in a row and the Blues’ slow start was not yet a crisis.
”Our focus is on rectifying the quality of football that we’re playing. We’re very confident we’re going to put in a far better performance than we have in the last two weeks,” he said.
Queensland, beaten by the New South Wales Waratahs and Canterbury Crusaders, has staked its revival hopes on physical forward play.
”We’ve set a goal to be the most physical pack and the best pack in the Super 14,” said lock Hugh McMeniman.
”We’ve been focusing on it for the past two weeks but I guess it all comes from last year when we weren’t doing too well.”
The Force have suffered two serious injuries in the lead-up to their match with the Chiefs. Centre Junior Pelesasa is out for the season with an ankle injury and wing Digby Ioane is counted only a 20% chance of starting on Friday because of a ligament strain.
Injuries to replacements Brett Stapleton and Zander Peden have left the Force looking for reinforcements, chief executive Peter O’Meara said.
”We can’t afford to lose any more backs. Our critical shortage is now in the backline, not the forwards,” he said.
The Chiefs suffered losses in South Africa to the Cats and Sharks and face another testing away match. Squad captain Jono Gibbes, who played only 20 minutes in his team’s first two matches, has been named at lock in a forward pack changed in five places from last week’s match at Johannesburg.
”We are keen to manage our forwards well, particularly given the challenging climates we are experiencing early on in this campaign,” coach Ian Foster said.
In other round-three matches, the Hurricanes will play the Cats, and South Africa’s Stormers will play the ACT Brumbies on Friday while the Crusaders meet the Sharks, the Bulls tackle the Waratahs and the Cheetahs face the Highlanders on Saturday. – Sapa-AP