I think most South Africans (except maybe Stormers supporters) are somewhat disappointed with the way our Super Rugby teams are going this year. New Zealanders (Crusaders fans excluded) are also not particularly over the moon with how their teams are performing. The Chiefs is almost bottom of the log. The Blues is somewhat better than previous seasons but far from consistent. The Canes is sort of all over the place. The Highlanders is the surprise package for the Kiwi’s but just a few injuries short off coming apart. They lack depth in the squad and everyone in Kiwiland is holding their thumbs but not expecting them to go all the way. 

The Stormers has an impressive win/lose record so far but is not really all that impressive in terms of ability to score tries and string phases together and the general perception is one of well they look OK but I’m not really convinced. The backline play is sort of average and they don’t really show lots of flow.

The Aussie sides are also far from consistent with the Reds by far the best performing team in that group.

So what to make of it all? Are all the teams just poor this year or are the differences between the teams so small that none (except for the Crusaders) are really running away with the competition?

Personally I have difficulty sometimes (mostly because games are played late at night in New Zealand) to stay awake. I also have no difficulty walking away from the matches without even a second thought on what actually happened. I also note at blogland, all over, an intriguing lack of comments about the rugby as compared to previous years.

Maybe everyone (players and spectators) are just saving themselves for the high excitement that is due with the Rugby World Cup and regard Super Rugby this year as of almost zero importance. I personally don’t care who wins the Series this year. In fact I would be more than happy if the SA teams don’t do too well because that might contribute to the Springboks being a little more focussed and aware that SA rugby is behind the ball game.

What I take out of Super Rugby this year – and from this weekend’s game between the Bulls and Reds as a classic example – is that the game has changed since last year’s Tri-Nations. The game is faster and with the new breakdown rule interpretation, a set piece centred game plan is just not enough to win matches against good teams. You can’t slow the game down unless you hang on to the ball and it is hard to hang on to the ball if you keep on trying to smash it up against the big guys.

Off-loads and pop-up passes from the ground is the new thing, as a result of the defender having to roll away. Attacking in depth is also the newly accepted style becuase it allows the supporting runners to receive the pop-up passes. With the ball carriers attacking space, it is almost impossible to win matches by defending for 50-60 minutes of the time. Angled running in the backline also took on a new dimension. The ball carrier and supporting runners work in unison; both first drawing the defenders away from each other by angling their respective runs in the opposite direction and then stepping towards each other into the opening thus created. The ball carrier gets himself between the defender and the ball and flip the pass to the receiver coming in at speed. Sonny Bill Williams’ try against the Bulls is a classic example of this new type of backline play. See on this link how the Crusaders flyhalf, Berquist, hinted at going in before going out (there was also a dummy runner for him and for Sonny Bill to confuse the defence) and passing. See how Sonny Bill goes outwards at first and then inwards, coming through past the inside of Wynand Olivier.

There is also a move away from flat aligning backlines.

• The flyhalf is still aligning flat, with a dummy runner backing him up, which forces the opponents to keep an eye on him (the flat aligning flyhalf also allows his halfback / scrumhalf to snipe around the fringes because the loossies have to watch the flyhalf so closely).
• Number 12 aligns behind a dummy runner slightly deeper but can come in flat to keep the opponents guessing.
• The rest of the backline is aligned much deeper and attack with speed from deep.

This creates space and speed on attack. It also allows the attacking team to take the ball – with long passes – away from rush-up defenders. Only rarely do you see teams like the Reds and the Crusaders bash the ball up against the big defenders in the middle of the park. They take the ball away from contact and run onto it at speed.

The game has changed and the two teams doing best in Super Rugby this year (Reds and Crusaders) are the two teams who have adjusted best to these new styles and who has players who can play this modern type of game.

Following them we have a group of teams who sit in the middle because they have adjusted how they play (Sharks, Stormers, Blues, Highlanders) but lack real talent or depth in the squad for the new type of game – in certain positions – or have not totally embraced the new style. It is interesting that complaints about obstruction at the breakdown – as was the case aginst the All Blacks last year – have been raised about Reds after this weekend’s game against the Bulls. The new game require explosive blow-over technique at the tackle area and the Reds and Crusaders are particularly good at this.

Lastly, we have teams struggling (like the Bulls, Waratahs, Brumbies, Hurricanes) because they still play last year’s game, have coaching problems or just don’t have enough talented players in key positions to play the new game. The Brumbies is interesting because the’ve always played a string-phase game but relied on the talents of George Smith to protect and recycle the ball. They’ve lost Smith and with the tackler now needing to release the ball carrier they seem to struggle to adjust as they have never been a numbers to the breakdown team. The Waratahs has sort of similar issues as their “fetcher” was Phil Waugh and he is not only getting a bit heavy but seems to be not in the game anymore. It is the props and centers who do the clearing out at the tackle area in the modern game and the Crusaders with their big centers and low-center-of-gravity but extremely mobile props certainly have the best players in Super Rugby for this type of style in the required positions to clean-out and blow over.

Lastly, I think Fourie du Preez will be a lot more influential in the modern game if he has a flat lying flyhalf which require the attention of the opponent’s loose trio.

Well that’s sort of my observations at this stage.