THREE of the teams playing in this weekend’s Super Rugby semi-finals – the Stormers, the Crusaders and, especially, the Blues – have gone through the usual ritual this week of trying to justify their underdog status. I have never understood this rationalisation. Too often teams talk themselves out of a victory. So it is good that the Reds are talking up their prospects over the Blues tonight at Suncorp Stadium.
Coach Ewen McKenzie insists the home-ground advantage will inspire his side to victory. “We want people to turn up and be excited,” he has told reporters. The Reds supporters are the most vocal, partisan and inspiring for their team of all the Australian franchises.
In Sydney you get the feeling that the Waratahs supporters are politely watching a play. But in Brisbane there is a rock concert atmosphere at Suncorp Stadium. The crowd tonight will be the 16th man for the Reds with about 50,000 supporters yelling for their team.
Genia turned a poor Reds scrum shove into gold by racing away to score a 40-metre try. Cooper was inspirational when the Reds, with time running out and behind on points, were literally out on their feet. Cooper, with his passing and running skills, forced the Reds to play rugby from deep inside their 22.
In the end, a long sequence of Reds phases was rewarded with a controversial penalty. Cooper converted it and a famous victory was won. More importantly, a way of achieving the victory in a crisis with running rugby was established.
As the coach of the Waratahs, McKenzie adopted the underdog status for his team too readily. His teams played with negative and ultimately unsuccessful game plans in their finals. This negativity has always been a question mark over his coaching record. It seems he has learnt his lesson from this.
Cooper will be given a licence to exploit his skills. Cooper is Australia’s latter-day David Campese. There are justifiable question marks about his tackling but any defensive weakness is more than compensated by his attacking genius.
The key to his game is the fact that he is, in temperament and action, the epitome of a Generation Y person. Here is a description of the Generation Y type: “They’re hip, smart-talking, brash and sometimes seem to suffer from an overdose of self-esteem.”
The Blues, the Crusaders and the Stormers are old-guard sides as epitomised by their leaders, Keven Mealamu, Schalk Burger and Richie McCaw. Toughness, rather than smarts, is the key to their game. Their teams are pragmatic, even when running the ball, rather than instinctive and inspired.
The Blues, particularly, have not been effective on attack since they lost Isaia Toeava earlier in the season. Their tough game will be compromised tonight, too, with the loss of Anthony Boric, the wiry lineout forward who snared seven out of their 10 lineout wins against the Waratahs.
Against the Waratahs, too, they seemed to have come up with a new playing style to compensate for the brilliance of Toeava. The big but quick forwards, John Afoa and Ali Williams, camped themselves on the extremities of the field during some of the phase play. From there they launched massive strong-shouldered attacks. This is old-guard play in comparison with the lightning strikes of the Reds.
The Crusaders have not played a match at their home stadium. Some of the players have had their homes wrecked twice by earthquakes. And over Mozambique on their way to Cape Town their plane was tossed around ferociously by turbulence.
No team has won the Super Rugby title travelling to and from South Africa in the finals. No wonder they see themselves as underdogs. However, I was intrigued with an email I received from a friend which sums up the indomitable Crusaders spirit: ”If the Crusaders win, can they decide to play the final in Cape Town, presuming the Reds lose?”