The words “World Cup” are stamped on page one of every New Zealand Super 15 handbook with the series overshadowed by All Blacks’ coach Graham Henry charged with producing a world champion side.
Player availability and highly-combative clashes when potential All Blacks are pitted against each other under the local derby flavour of the new Super format will inevitably dictate the fortunes of the New Zealand franchises.
The Canterbury Crusaders again start the Super series as the team with the best credentials, while the Wellington Hurricanes, Waikato Chiefs and Auckland Blues have the players to compete but a history that says they won’t.
But overriding their interests will be those of Henry and his World Cup masterplan as New Zealand seek to win rugby’s showpiece trophy for the first time since they won the inaugural tournament 24 years ago.
Four years back, Henry controversially pulled his leading All Blacks out of the first half of the then Super 14 series and though he does not intend being as extreme this time he does have a huge say on when his stars will appear.
“Our biggest challenge is that they’ve got to be reasonably sharp mentally coming into the World Cup and the Tri Nations prior,” Henry said following a meeting with the five Super 15 coaches.
“If they’re tired, it’s going to be very difficult. It’s keeping them fresh; it’s keeping on communicating with them and the Super 15 coaches to see how we can do that.”
This is tough on the non All Blacks for whom the Super 15 trophy is their holy grail.
In the Crusaders’ camp this means at times they will be without some of their galaxy of stars, who include Richie McCaw, Dan Carter, Brad Thorn, Kieran Read, Owen and Ben Franks, Sam Whitelock and now Sonny Bill Williams.
It is expected the All Blacks will at least be spelled around bye weekends to give them a minimum of two two-week breaks during the competition.
Henry has also hinted that his blueprint for the World Cup will have a bearing on the style of rugby produced by the Super 15
sides, saying he will work with the coaches “to give them constant feedback on the way they’re playing and how we think they can improve their game.”
Then there is the injury toll as players eye a World Cup jersey, with a crucial vacancy to be Carter’s back up at number 10.
Of the leading contenders, Colin Slade broke his jaw in the Otago Highlanders’ pre-season game against the Blues, while Blues pivot Luke McAlister was knocked out playing the Chiefs, home of Carter’s incumbent backup Stephen Donald.
The most anticipated clash will come when the Crusaders play the Hurricanes, which lines Sonny Bill Williams and Robbie Fruean up against Ma’a Nonu and Conrad Smith.
All five squads have at least one past or present All Black wing fighting for a limited number of spots, and there is a similar battle among the locks where Ali Williams (Blues) returns after missing most of the past two years to challenge Thorn, Whitelock, Anthony Boric (Blues), Jason Eaton (Hurricanes) and Tom Donnelly (Highlanders).
Donnelly will miss the start of the season with a shoulder injury as will McCaw (foot) and Crusaders wing Zac Guildford (hamstring).
All Blacks captain McCaw was already scheduled to be rested for the first two weeks but will not now be available until round seven.
His injury will allow the Crusaders to trial two of the leading contenders to be his understudy, George Whitelock and Matt Todd.
Of the packed group behind the Crusaders most interest will be on the Hurricanes, who historically have always stumbled when winning mattered most. The side, with 13 past and present All Blacks, is now coached by Mark Hammett, who served his apprenticeship under Robbie Deans and then Todd Blackadder at the Crusaders and has arrived in Wellington laden with Canterbury intellectual property. – Sapa-AFP
It seems flair is on agenda, not results
Adam Freier
As the heat wave subsides and the daily grind of cricket, KFC ads and the Colonel finally depart our television sets, we walk over to our wardrobes, undress from the blue singlet and boardies and trade them for tweed and a set of chino pants. It’s rah-rah season again and, while the competition structure has changed, the chief talking points still remain.
About this time every year, players and coaches are always asked the same question – whether their team is a legitimate chance of winning the title. But the question in 2011 has been revised somewhat, from who is the Australian team to beat to who will play the more entertaining and expansive style of rugby. It seems that flair is on the agenda in 2011, not results.
It’s hard to judge what to predict with the new Super Rugby competition. Its dynamic is unlike any other in the sporting landscape of Australia but what has become increasingly obvious is the shift for our sport to be ”entertainment” on all fronts , which has me worried about the code delivering on these manufactured expectations.
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Rugby’s profile is boutique and intimate, which puts even more emphasis on the on-field performance of our game. We have no real exposure on free-to-air, no real public profile, Twitter scandals or helicopters circling our mansions looking for a scoop involving a super model. We are considered boring by outsiders.
Being all about ”fast, attacking rugby” is so passe – the breakdown laws aren’t at all certain enough for it to be as crisp, sharp and simple as our neighbouring code, where players can simply stand up and play the ball between their legs. The faster they get to their feet, the faster the game is. The breakdown is, in my humble opinion, still the key to our game being entertaining.
On the pitch, we are all of the point of view that entertaining rugby is a very good formula for a successful rugby side.
Reds coach Ewen McKenzie knows he will win the hearts of many by expressing that very sentiment. The Waratahs until last year saw that a win was considered a success, whereas they now know it’s winning and winning in style that matters. The greatest entertainer of all, Stephen Larkham, has been parachuted in to return the Brumbies back line to its dominant days of the early 2000s. Richard Graham is a Sevens specialist and having him as the replacement for former All Blacks coach John Mitchell at the Force shows the public that they will be here to entertain. Rod Macqueen has ambitions to give the fans what they truly deserve and is looking to challenge the status quo of how rugby should be played – keeping the ball alive and in play for as long as possible.
They are all there with the expectation to entertain.
I am sure all would love to see that happen and in time it will but a coach’s first priority is to win. Yet the last thing we need is to see our teams being successful, as were the Waratahs last year, but losing fans because they weren’t entertained.
Currently, there seems to be the expectation we are settling for the rugby viewer, that our game has to be a try-fest. The spring tour performance by the Wallabies was a marvel in that it took years for the Wallabies and that brand of rugby to reach the heights it did against France in Paris. It comes with time and a great deal of hard work. To expect the exact match in all teams, in local derbies – which historically are won with true grit and teams grinding out victories – is not the mood we should be setting.
We need to take a breath, sit back and revisit what rugby truly is – a series of contests. Make no mistake, I want to be entertained. But it is fanciful to think our game will thrive if played in the fashion that is now being hyped.
Rugby will be fantastic this year, I for one am pumped but realise that it isn’t always going to be what is expected.
That’s the beauty of this sport.