Jamie Wall
Sydney, April 14, 2024
Super Rugby Pacific needed some entertaining games on another meagre round of fixtures last weekend, although the Waratahs’ unbelievable 43-40 win over the Crusaders on Friday (April 12) night in Sydney had enough in it to satisfy anyone on its own.
Anyone except the Crusaders must now be wondering if their win over the Chiefs little more than a false dawn was.
This Sydney match was supposed to be the start of a pressure release for Rob Penney’s side with the underperforming Tahs first followed by fixtures against the Force and Rebels. But now that they have to analyse their sixth loss of the season, a good place to start would be to look in the mirror.
Credit to the Tahs, though. They had already beaten the Crusaders once this year but committed to scoring as many tries as they could and not rolling over to the defending champions. In a remarkable turn of events, the lead changed hands 12 times before locking up at 40-all at the end of regulation, then the 13th was due to Will Harrison calmly slotting a dropped goal in golden point extra time.
(Photo by Fiona Goodall for Getty Images)
The worst performance ever
But Harrison should never have had the chance. Three brutal brain fades from the Crusaders handed to him in this order: Rivez Reihana did not seem to understand that Referee Nic Berry was telling him that he just needed to wait for time to expire before converting Christian Lio-Willie’s 78th-minute try that put them up 38-37. That meant the game restarted, after which Johnny McNichol flung a hand out at a pass that he was never going to catch, giving away a kickable penalty that made the score 40-all.
Then, in golden point, the Crusaders executed perhaps the worst botched lineout of all time on their own 22, giving the Tahs the ball that they ultimately set up for Harrison’s moment of glory.
The action and intensity otherwise meant the game was an instant Super Rugby classic. But take away those three key moments and we would be sitting here talking about how the Crusaders managed to ice a result.
The irony is that the game beforehand featured almost the same circumstance to end when Moana Pasifika dug deep to beat the Reds 17-14 in Whangarei.
William Havili scored the winning try right before the end but knew well that if he took his time as the clock ran down the game ended then and there.
The Captain slips
It was not much of a game otherwise, as the aptly named Reds had Tate McDermott and Liam Wright sent off for stupid acts in the second half.
McDermott, who is the Captain, and has led the Wallabies, should know better than to throw a swinging arm in frustration.
That result means the Reds drop down to sixth, and the Rebels’ 47-31 win over the Highlanders on Saturday (April 13) night in Melbourne sees them in fourth. This was a good watch and the Rebels deserved the result, but the Highlanders should not be escaping any scrutiny for what is turning into a disappointing season already.
They are now 10th on the table and cannot look at any fixtures as guaranteed wins.
Meanwhile, are Hurricanes fans starting to believe yet? The clinical last 15 minutes against the Chiefs that resulted in a 36-23 win was more evidence that Clark Laidlaw’s side has what it takes to lift a Trophy this season, but there was even more detail in the win that could have implications later on.
TJ Perenara was outstanding at halfback and has to be part of the All-Black conversation, while outside him Brett Cameron played the metronomic foil to Damian McKenzie’s off-the-cuff brilliance and pressed his claim as well. Brayden Lose did everything right as well, so it is going to be an interesting period for Scott Robertson to ruminate on the shape of things to come as the first selections.
Jamie Wall is a Digital Sports Journalist at Radio New Zealand. The above Report and pictures have been published under a special agreement with www.rnz.co.nz
