Does it pass the pub test? Super Rugby finals system to be reviewed
Super Rugby Pacific bosses will factor in the 'pub test' when they conduct a post-season review of the competition's contentious new play-offs system, which sees the Chiefs host the Brumbies in a semi-final on Saturday despite losing at the weekend.
The Super Rugby Pacific finals were cut back from eight teams to six this year but the adjusted play-offs structure has drawn criticism. With three qualifying finals in week one, the highest-ranked 'lucky' losers still progress, and that turned out to be minor premiers the Chiefs, who were rolled on Saturday by the Blues, the lowest-ranked side in the play-offs.
Under the Super Rugby Pacific finals system, the Chiefs also retained the right to host a semi-final because the penalty for losing was dropping only one seeding position, as a reward for being minor premiers.
The Brumbies, who finished third and beat the fourth-placed Hurricanes to progress, must this week travel to New Zealand, where no overseas side has ever won a Super Rugby semi-final.
The tournament rules were in place from the start of the year but given the highest-seed losing to the lowest seed in Super Rugby finals is so rare, fans – and even some officials – were still caught by surprise by the fine print. The lowest-ranked team in Super Rugby finals had only ever beaten the minor premiers twice before in 30 years – when Super Rugby only had a four-team play-offs series, and Queensland lost semi-finals in 1996 (Natal) and 1998 (Crusaders).
Super Rugby Pacific chief executive Jack Mesley said he was aware of the criticism, and it would be factored into a post-season review.
'We will definitely do a review. Clearly with the in-practice versus on-paper, you always learn things, and by seeing people's response to it,' Mesley said.
'Part of that review will be us looking at how complicated was the structure? There was also discussion last week around the scheduling, and can we do it in a way that makes the most of every match?
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Perth Now
2 hours ago
- Perth Now
'Utterly committed': why Schmidt rates Jake Gordon
Joe Schmidt has detailed why Jake Gordon is Wallabies captaincy material, while conceding individual form will trump team performances when selectors sit down to pick a squad to topple the touring British and Irish Lions. Gordon's emergence as a frontrunner to lead the Wallabies in the showpiece three-Test series against the Lions this winter has raised eyebrows after the NSW skipper missed several games injured during his Waratahs' failure to make the Super Rugby Pacific finals for a second straight season. But coach Schmidt was glowing in his praise when asked about the halfback's captaincy credentials during a visit to the Western Force's training hub in Perth. "Jake, he's one of the leaders in the group," Schmidt told reporters. "So is Nic White, so there's a few halfbacks ... and Tate McDermott has been a former (Wallabies) captain, so of the nines we had last year, they're all leaders within the group. "Jake is a really good skill-set, mature player, (has a) very nice kicking game, one of the sharper passers around, and he is utterly committed when he's on the grass. "His ability to cover corners and make tackles, be involved in the physical stuff, he's a multi-purpose sort of player. "But the sharp edge of his game is really his pass-kick, which were very helpful to us last year." Schmidt will name a squad of up to 40 players before the Wallabies' first Test of the year against Fiji in Newcastle on July 6. But the Kiwi mentor said his squad wouldn't necessarily be dominated by the ACT Brumbies, Australia's last team standing in the Super Rugby Pacific competition. Schmidt promised he was looking at a raft of players from all four Australian franchises. "Results are fickle," he said of the topsy-turvy Super Rugby season. "The Wallabies will be judged on them, but there's a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes, and there's a lot of moments in games that decide results. "An individual can stack up plenty of good moments in a game where they've performed really well, and sometimes the team doesn't get the results. "So we're probably anchored to results. We're anchored more around performance and individual performance in a team context, definitely. "You know that you've got to be connected with your teammates because that's one of the beauties of the game. It's so interdependent. "You're reliant on the guys up front doing the job so you can get the space out the back. A guy like Mac Grealy or Harry Potter or Dylan Pietsch, they can't do a lot in space if the boys up front aren't doing their job." The Force will be the first Australian side to tackle the Lions, hosting the best of Britain and Ireland at Optus Stadium on June 28.
News.com.au
16 hours ago
- News.com.au
Brumbies playing ‘two grand finals' to avoid ugly Super Rugby history
The Brumbies are looking to avoid an unwanted piece of history this weekend, as the first team in Super Rugby history to lose four successive semi-finals. The Canberra side have been knocked out at the final four stage the previous three seasons, and no side has failed on four consecutive occasions. So they're treating Saturday's semi against the Chiefs in Hamilton as the first of two grand finals. 'We're pouring absolutely everything into this one because we know we need to, because at the end of the day we fell short the last three years,' Brumbies lock Tom Hooper said. 'I think you take a lot of learnings out of the last three years, it's all been building to a head for a long time now. 'Obviously we've lost against the Chiefs earlier in the year (49-34 in Hamilton) and we took a lot of stuff out of that game that we needed to improve on, and we're looking to make sure we're putting that into practice this weekend. That game was, if you just look at the score, probably not really reflective of how tight that one was. 'For me, the grand final is this weekend. We've got two grand finals left and we're going to pour absolutely everything into it.' There is added incentive for Hooper to finish with silverware, given he is departing the Brumbies to join English club Exeter alongside teammate Len Ikitau. 'That's why I've been flogging myself on the weekend, I've been draining myself every week,' Hooper said. 'It's like driving down a highway. You don't need a full tank to make it to the end of the road. So the end of the road's coming up and I've filled up my tank this week, but I'm about to empty it again and I'll do it again next week. 'After that I'll just be filling it up with a couple of pina coladas somewhere, just relaxing after the season with the trophy in my hand.' While there has been criticism of the finals format given the Chiefs lost to the Blues last week and the Brumbies beat the Hurricanes, but the Chiefs get to host the semi-final given they finished first, Hooper dismissed any notion it is unfair. 'At the end of the day, we knew throughout the course of the season we needed to finish in those top two positions for that very reason,' Hooper said. 'Obviously, we fell short against the Crusaders. That means we have to go across the ditch and beat them on their home soil, which is nice. 'The Chiefs deserve it because they reaped the rewards of their hard work throughout the season. 'There's only 11 teams in this competition and they've obviously been the best team throughout the majority of the year. 'Even though they didn't have one of their better nights on the weekend against the Blues, they still deserve a home semi-final in my eyes because we should have done better throughout the season and we dropped a few games that we shouldn't have.'
West Australian
17 hours ago
- West Australian
Brumbies better prepared for Super title push: Hooper
Tom Hooper says the ACT Brumbies' push for the Super Rugby Pacific title has been years in the making and the team feels "far more prepared" than in previous semi-finals. The Brumbies will tackle the Chiefs in Hamilton on Saturday looking to end an Australian team hoodoo in New Zealand, where no side has ever won a Super knock-out game. The ACT side has now made the semis the last four seasons, since the competition added the Pacific element, but haven't been able to crack a place in the final and haven't won the title since 2004. Hooper, who has starred at both lock and blindside flanker, said the current crop of Brumbies faced this challenge with confidence after their seasons together. "It's all been building to a head for a long time now so we're very keen to take it one step further, take the learnings from the last three years and then take the learnings from games we've played this year," the 24-year-old said. "We're far more prepared, this group's been together for a long time and having the nucleus together for a fair chunk of this season has been really beneficial." The teams met in round three at FMG Stadium Waikato with the home side triumphant 49-34, however both scored six tries with the Chiefs' goal-kicking the difference. The Brumbies only trailed by five points before Anton Lienert-Brown locked down the result with a converted try in the 79th minute. The visitors were missing first-choice players Hooper, Noah Lolesio, Rob Valetini, Tuaina Taii Tualima and David Feliua from that starting line-up. The Brumbies eliminated the Hurricanes to advance to the final four, with four of their five tries scored by their front-row, backing themselves to score each time they entered the 22m zone. "It's a huge advantage and we really pride ourselves on our 'A-zone' and I think we 100 per cent rate on the weekend and if we can do that against the Chiefs, it would be really great," Hooper said. "If I look back two years (2023 semi-final against the Chiefs), our conversion rate in A-zone was what lost us that game, ultimately." But Hooper said they weren't "one-trick ponies". "At the moment, we've been doing really well in our pick and go, but that doesn't mean we can't swing it out wide to Corey Toole and he can gas one over. "Any team that's going to win this competition has to have a few different weapons to their arsenal and we're definitely not a one-trick pony. "But that trick at the moment is working very well for us ... we'll keep going back to it, but we've got a few different weapons up our sleeve." Hooper is shifting his career to the UK, but he said he wasn't thinking this could be his last match in Brumbies colours. "We've got two grand finals left and we're going to pour absolutely everything into it as we fell short the last three years because we didn't," he said. "We're pouring everything into this one and then we'll pour everything into the next one and then after that we'll pour beers into the cup and drink out of it."
