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Those brave enough to bet against the favorite would have made a nice profit this weekend. In a unique opening to super rugby 2015, six of the seven games were won away from home and three of those games, by away range.
The competition began with the rebels defeating last year’s finalists and seven-time champions, the Crusaders, in Christchurch. Although defeated in the set piece, the rebels’ defense was exemplary and made fewer mistakes than the opposition. As usual, the Crusaders were slow outside the box, tended to rush things, kicked badly, and were short on ideas. For the winners, McMahon was exceptional.
The Brumbies returned to normal at home against the Reds, who looked completely disorganized. The referee did not help them but they were poor in all respects. The Brumbies looked solid and the bottom line was particularly dominant, with Kuridrani and the underrated Coleman leading the way.
Without several All Blacks, the Chiefs got off to a quick start and established a good lead early on. They faded later and their continued tendency to lose the ball on contact needs to be addressed. Sonny Bill Williams made an immediate impact, the backs were good in the first half and the McKenzie brothers were good. However, if the Blues play to their potential, the Stormers will be busy this weekend.
Lions vs Hurricanes was a strange game, one that the visitors did well to win, but the result could easily have been different. Too many turnovers and lack of spikes cost the Lions dearly, and the Hurricanes made the most of limited opportunities. The result will hurt, but there was a lot of promise in this Lions performance.
Unsurprisingly, the Bulls turned to the guy, but without the scrum muscle to back him up, they stumbled upon a motivated team of Stormers and suffered a rare loss at Loftus. They were largely outmatched by a team that fully deserved their victory.
Every year the cash-strapped Cheetahs lose their best players to other South African franchises and in their game in Durban they lost Jager’s Bok Lock early in the game. However, they always fight bravely and while their forwards held their own, Pretorius and le Roux enlightened them at the rear. They seemed sharper and more focused and despite a nervous finish, they left Durban with a bag full of points. The sharks were just disappointing.
Last but not least, the brave Force, who have never won the first game of a super rugby season and who were without talisman captain Hodgson for the first eight weeks of the competition, performed superbly against the champions packed with stars. Even losing his international mainstay, Pek Cowan did nothing to slow down his efforts. It seemed that the Waratah thought that all they had to do was show up and that arrogance was their downfall. Despite the dominance of the set piece, they reacted slowly and seemed unmotivated. Next weekend should be interesting.