Round six of Super 15 2012 is coming up, and the picture has been mostly drawn by hands from the Land of the Long White Cloud, with the odd surprise.
The most enterprising rugby is being played by the New Zealand teams, with the Highlanders (bar their surprising loss to the Brumbies) and the Chiefs looking the most dynamic. The Blues have been all over the place, while the Crusaders are yet to hit the heights so expected of them. Dan Carter’s return to fitness is good news for the former champions (along with having an actual stadium to play in), which can only mean bad things for teams traveling to their side of New Zealand. The Hurricanes haven’t been half-bad neither, well coached and well drilled, and while not boasting an array of All Blacks, they go about their work with energy and commitment. Mark Hammett couldn’t ask for more.
The Cheetahs pulled off a daring post-hooter victory over the Rebels in Melbourne and played a good brand of rugby against the Crusaders. They got a raw deal against the Brumbies, being penalised at scrum time when it appeared the referee was doing a bit of guess work of who was performing the skulduggery. That has been the trend for this season’s beginning, where the whistlemen find their feet before settling down.
The Australians have the weakest conference again this year, with the Force (don’t let that Sydney win fool you) and Rebels offering an easier path to four points than the Reds, Waratahs (Australia’s Blues) and, most surprisingly, the Brumbies. With few star players, Jake White has moulded a team very much in the image of his Springbok side: a strong defence and high work rate form the back bone, with the rest following from that. They aren’t the most exciting team to watch, but the Brumbies are getting results.
The Reds’ humiliation in Pretoria notwithstanding, they should still pose the greatest Australian threat come eliminator time. With a host of players returning from injury, they are only going to get stronger especially when Quade Cooper comes back. Will Genia is one of the best number nines in the competition, but with Cooper by his side, the two enhance each other.
The Bulls showed that they aren’t to be taken lightly with Pierre Spies leading a mini-revolution across the Juksei. The Bulls lost a host of experience in the off season, but their winning culture has shone through as they continue to be a very dangerous team when they get forward momentum. In Bjorn Basson, they have South Africa’s form wing with his nearest competition being the excellent Lwazi Mvovo for the Sharks.
Their clash with the Stormers will be epic in proportion, with the winner arguably the leading South African side at this point in a marathon season. The Stormers have that impressive ability to grind out results when they are playing badly, but the question remains whether they can get any better. Considering the talent in their backline, they aren’t running teams off their feet but rather using a physical pack to do so. The Bulls will be the acid test to see if their tight five, which were adequate against the Sharks, can really impose themselves on an opposition they’ve had problems with in the past.
The Sharks continue to have the same problems last year: great on paper, variable on the park. Their pack is a strength while their backline doesn’t appear to be as cohesive as it could be. Pat Lambie is a fine player, but he would benefit from snappier service at scrumhalf. Charl McLoud is useful around the park but his service isn’t as quick as South Africa’s two best scrumhalves, Francois Hougaard and Sarel Prestorius. Freddie Michalak? He’s a number 10.
The Lions, like the Cheetahs, play a good brand of rugby, but that lack of star quality will continue to be a problem as the season goes along, especially as the injury toll mounts. Some teams have been more ravaged than others, but the central theme to emerge is that if a squad doesn’t have two players for every position, it’s going to be a long season.
The competition ends in August, and while it may be premature to say so, New Zealand looks to be the place where at least two of the semi-finalists will emerge from.
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