WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — In Super Rugby, the more things change the more they remain the same.
A different competition this year with only 11 teams yielded a familiar result. The Christchurch-based Crusaders are champions for the 13th time and the eighth time in the last nine years.
The Hamilton-based Chiefs are runners-up for the third time in the last three finals.
This year familiarity didn’t equal inevitability. The Chiefs went into the final as marginal favorites after sitting in first place for most of the season and finishing in that spot, as top-seeds for the playoffs.
Though they stumbled in the first playoff round, losing at home to the Auckland-based Blues, they advanced to the semifinals as the top-ranked losers and convincingly beat the ACT Brumbies in the semifinals.
But if ever there was a case of one team wanting it more, it was the Crusaders who were desperate to atone for their 2024 season in which, in their first year under head coach Rob Penney, they won only four matches and finished well outside their playoffs.
Penney was seen as lucky to keep his job. Other teams might have been more ruthless. But the Crusaders gave him a second chance and he atoned on Saturday with his first Super Rugby title.
The Crusaders’ were determined to win for Penney, for their fans and in their last match at the “temporary” stadium they have called home since the 2011 Christchurch earthquake destroyed their former headquarters at Lancaster Park.
The Chiefs were on the back foot from the start and though they trailed by only one point at halftime and then for 31 minutes in the second half, they were only hanging on.
The accuracy of the Crusaders’ kicking game and the eagerness with which they chased kicks kept the Chiefs pinned mostly in their own half. They escaped twice and scored tries but spent the crucial final minutes of the match trapped within their own territory.
“It was a classic final, two great teams going at it and a small margin,” Chiefs captain Luke Jacobson said. “The Crusaders did really well to win the halfway and play at the right end of the field.
“I felt we had some good attack when we got into their half, we put some good pressure on them but we just didn’t play enough footy down there.”
The Chiefs did their best to send off head coach Clayton McMillan with his first Super Rugby title. In his five years in charge, McMillan has taken the Chiefs to the final three times and the semifinals twice. That followed a barren season under former British and Irish Lions coach Warren Gatland.
It wasn’t to be. McMillan will leave New Zealand to coach Munster in Ireland without the trophy he deserves.
Close contests, uncertain future
Now, questions will be asked about what it all means for the competition. Already, there is contention about the lucky loser rule, introduced this season which allowed the Chiefs to reach the final after a playoff loss.
The tournament will continue next year with 11 teams but what of the future?
This season began with a number of high-scoring games in summer conditions and margins were typically close, indicating a tight competition. Moana Pasifika had its best-ever season under new captain Ardie Savea and only narrowly missed the playoffs.
“We’ve seen a whole lot of upsets, we’ve seen lots of hoodoos broken and then on the pitch I think the new rules and the work of the match officials have set it up to play some really entertaining and combative rugby,” Super Rugby boss Jack Mesley told Radio New Zealand. “The stat was something like, I think we had 43 percent of games that were decided by only seven points or less.
“We saw the teams that were on the bottom of the ladder last year really change their fortunes. It was the closest competition in points since 2004 so I think a lot of those teams just got better.”
Still, while television audiences crept up by around six percent while actual match attendance remained static.
“We probably haven’t delivered off the field and given fans all the tools that should go in and around a great product that we have on the field so we’re working on that,” Mesley said. “We took some pretty good steps I think this year.”
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AP rugby: https://apnews.com/hub/rugby
Steve Mcmorran, The Associated Press
