Super rugby Aotearoa week 2 review:

This week the quality of rugby was better even though neither of the games where close in the end.

Chiefs vs Blues: This game played out pretty much as I thought it would The Chiefs started of well and attacked much better with Cruden at ten. There defence also held the attack of the Blues well at first and even the weather played into their hands. The reason that they lost was because there defensive structure is suited for international rugby were the the attacking team playes with allot of structure and don’t really rely on loose play to score points. That is the reason why most of the match their defence held up well and they were able to stay in contention against the Blues, but later on when the Blues started playing from broken play the Chiefs defence started to open up and create gaps for the very dangerous Blues team. The Blues had another big win and are looking to be one of the contenders for the competition as I predicted in the beginning. The only thing the Blues will have to sort out is their defence. At the moment they are relying on their ability to outscore the other team and it has worked this far but if they are going to want to win the Crusaders their defence is going to have to sharpen up. This game did have a wierd feeling about it because in the first half all the penalties were against the Blues and it is as if the referee saw the penalty count half time and tried to justify it by penalising the Chiefs in the second half.

Hurricanes vs Crusaders: This was the defending champs’ first taste of rugby since lockdown and you could tell. Passes that would usually go to hand and moves that would usually break the defensive line Just didn’t go to hand and didn’t work out. You could see that in the first half they tried to play like they always do but the break made certain that they weren’t able to execute as well. Then in the second half they went back to the basics not trying the 50/50 passes and just playing good rugby. That helped them run away with the game and helped them secure their first win. The Canes did not have a great game and as expected they lost. I think that their backline had a pretty good game and that they were up for the challenge in facing the Champs but it was in the forwards that they lacked and lost the game. Their forwards just did not have the power and experience to stand up to the might of the Crusaders. If the Canes is able to keep their backline players and just recruit a few new locks and props they will be a force to reckon with again and then they will be able to win tournaments.

Wrap up:

This week went better and the referees did not have that big of an impact on the games. The games was lively and it was better to watch than the previous week. There is still a few stuff the referees have to get right but I believe it is moving in the good direction.