Monday 10 August 2020 10:25, UK
James Gemmell looks at the stand-out moments from the weekend's Super Rugby matches in New Zealand and Australia...
Like a ballin' Benjamin Button, we're going to start at the end this week, with the crowning of Super Rugby Aotearoa 2020 champions, the Crusaders.
Without any play-offs for unscripted drama, there was a sense of inevitability about the league table as the red and blacks marched unbeaten into round seven a fortnight ago.
But a stumble at home against the Hurricanes kept them just within reach coming into this weekend's penultimate round, where the Highlanders, a team out of the race, had the hopes of the Blues and the 'Canes on their shoulders.
Christchurch in mid-winter greets you in one of two ways: like you've reached the gates to Mordor, or with a sky so blue it hurts your eyes. Sunday served up the latter, and we were set fair.
Former Crusader now Highlanders coach Aaron Mauger warned that chasing the champions from behind was out of the question, it's a case of hit hard early and hang on. Not even he could have hoped for the start they got, inside 90 seconds.
An aggressive ruck on Crusaders' ball provided Aaron Smith with unfettered access (his favourite kind), and he in turn picked out the hard-running Shannon Frizell - perfectly in the shadow of dummy runner Sio Tomkinson - for an easy first score.
In retrospect, prodding the bear so early mightn't have been the smartest play, but from here on in, value for money was guaranteed.
It was only minutes later that we saw the very best of this Crusaders side. They seem to thrive in the transition between structure, chaos and back to structure again, with the speed of those transitions the key. No wonder they are a nightmare to defend against.
Scrum-half Bryn Hall, not usually mentioned in the same breath as his illustrious opposite, was instrumental. Having established a formal ruck following a sequence of bouncing balls and basketball passes, the machine was instantly back in gear.
Hall found Sevu Reece flat and unmarked on the right side-line and then ran as hard as he could on a parallel line 15 metres infield.
When the pass came, he simply popped it on to George Bridge (completely off his wing, but seeming to know where he would be needed), and then on again to Richie Mo'unga, this time the finisher.
It was full team rugby of breathtaking quality.
Through persistence and pressure the Highlanders held a four-point half-time lead, but their tenacity was best summed up early in the second spell when Mo'unga - The Alchemist - cast another attacking spell.
It's worth watching again just for his break and no-look offload, but the real craft came from Highlanders' wing Josh McKay, who chased down Hall and somehow knocked the ball free on the line to deny the Crusaders the try and the lead.
The country held its breath as the Highlanders recovered and even pushed for full independence through Michael Collins, but almost on the stroke of 60 minutes the Crusaders flicked the switch and had the nearly 20,000 supporters at Orangetheory Stadium on their feet and applauding a fourth straight championship with a week to spare.
Much like their campaign as a whole, there is a certainty about the Crusaders' final-quarter form. They can be caught out early, they can trail at half-time, they can be forced into errors; but only the 'Canes this year have found a way to deny them in the final 20 minutes.
Is it fitness? Is it confidence? Is it their bench? In truth, it's a combination of all three, with a little something sprinkled on top that is hard to pin down. Whatever their formula, it worked again here. Two tries to Bridge, a final canter over for Braydon Ennor and the coaching staff were heading pitchside.
There would be no Razor Robertson break-dance here - "it didn't feel like the right time", with a game next week to play - but don't take that to mean this title has any less significance.
Given the context in which it was played, against the quality of opposition, and the passion of the supporters in New Zealand and around the rugby world, this one - their fourth in a row under Robertson - might be the sweetest yet.
And so we return to the night before, when the Hurricanes' fate was in their own hands, never mind those pesky Crusaders.
Win - if at all possible with a bonus point - and they could sit back on Sunday and hope.
The winless Chiefs' season ended here come what may, with - let's be honest - a very welcome bye next week.
Even still, a win would have been a spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down.
In recent weeks we've discussed New Zealand's congested midfield options, with the still youthful Jack Goodhue and Anton Lienert-Brown the incumbent centre pairing, but with Ngani Laumape, Ennor and Rieko Ioane pressing their cases firmly. I think it's time we added Peter Umaga-Jensen to that list as well, after yet another performance of high quality.
Two first-half tries showed his variety of skills, and both exposed space in the finest traditions of top-level centre.
First, a well-timed, angled run on to a flat TJ Perenara pass had defenders ball-watching for a try that looked easier than it was, and then an outside break that showed vision and acceleration to leave Sean Stephenson on his heels.
Keen to make amends, Stephenson over-chased when winger Wes Goosen received the ball, freeing up the supporting Umaga-Jensen for score two and a handy first-half lead.
For all their woes the Chiefs are doggedly hard to shake off and early in the second spell, with a man in the bin, the Hurricanes knew they were in for a fight.
A solid midfield set up from an attacking lineout gave fly-half Kaleb Trask plenty of width to find Sean Wainui, a player who has given his all this season and finished in style to bring the Chiefs within two.
That's as close as they would come, though, as the Hurricanes responded with tries to Kobus van Wyk and Dane Coles - enough to make certain of the result - before they turned attention to the try bonus point.
It's worth bearing in mind a side must score three tries or more than their opponents for the extra point, and heading into the final 10 minutes it was four scores to two.
Cue the 'Canes special play: scrum-half Jamie Booth coming off the bench, and Perenara pushing to first five-eighth (or Jordie Barrett might step into first receiver, take your pick).
Booth's speed around the base is noticeable at such a late stage, and his ruck-side surge and offload for Billy Procter signed off a very satisfactory night for the home side.
The Brumbies suffered their first defeat in Super Rugby AU on Friday night, an 18-point punishment at the hands of a very efficient Rebels side in the sopping wet of Leichhardt Oval.
It wasn't just the margin of defeat that will travel on the winter wind Down Under, but the nature in which the combative and ruthless favourites were dismantled.
The Rebels' kicking game kept the Brumbies out of striking range, and there was no great difference at set-piece time.
As the competition nears the play-offs, perhaps the ACT's wild horses can be lassoed after all.
The Rebels slipped into gear almost from kick-off and took a lead they would never relinquish after just three minutes.
Reece Hodge was the sliding scorer, but it was the slick handling of Matt Toomua in consecutive phases in the build-up that enticed the defenders out of position.
Simple skills for a player of Toomua's talent, but super effective in the conditions, and the first of many clever touches from the Rebels skipper.
Less renowned, but no less effective than Toomua on the night was openside Brad Wilkin. On a sodden pitch he needed to be closer to the ball than usual, and he thrived under the brief.
He hustled and frustrated the Brumbies on defence, and his work rate was typified - and rewarded - following Marika Koroibete's hack-ahead foot race.
The Rebels' left wing did all but score, and he had his openside on hand to finish the job.
A 20-point half-time deficit felt deserved, as the Brumbies reeled against a poor start and lack of energy.
The second half gave us little in the way of talking points, but the most important figure throughout remained Toomua. He is a class act from head to toe, and operated with time and space outside Andrew Deegan, clearly enjoying his role as second receiver.
Dave Rennie may have a decision on his hands, with the Wallabies' form option at 10 and 12 looking like the same man.
For a sunburnt island, it sure was wet in Australia this weekend. And in shocker number two, it was raining tries for the so-far very ordinary Waratahs against arch-rivals, the Reds.
Whichever way you spun the traditional rivalry, playing at a cricket ground in front of a frugal gathering (cleverly described by commentator Greg Clarke as 'socially distanced') was never going to live up to the game's rugby league equivalent, but that didn't stop the 'Tahs producing a highly memorable performance.
It was record-breaking stuff, and much of that was wrapped up in the opening quarter hat-trick of scrum-half Jake Gordon. The pick of the bunch was his first, and the credit should be shared with Karmichael Hunt, involved twice in the sweeping move, and the impressive James Ramm, whose in-and-away on his side of half-way and delicious chip and regather is the stuff of training-ground dreams.
It set the home side on their way, and gave Gordon a taste for the line that had him coming back for more.
As we closed in on half-time the Sydneysiders were strutting their stuff. Where on earth this confidence has been hiding is anyone's guess, but it isn't too much of a stretch to say it was their finest 40 of footy since the 2014 season that saw them crowned champions.
Speaking of stretching, Alex Newsome's try before the break - the Waratahs' fifth - summed up everything that was good about the boys in blue.
Ramm collected the Reds' spilt ball down the left flank to set the move in motion before Michael Hooper linked with Jake Gordon to bring the ball back right. In a hastily formed counter-attack backline, forwards mixed with backs, dexterity with direction, leaving Newsome with a corner-flag swan dive that certainly wouldn't have looked out of place in the State of Origin.
Trailing 38-0 at the break and the Reds were well and truly Sydney Cricket Ground Down, with bragging rights and the Bob Templeton Cup locked away before the second-half restart.
