The decision by the Hurricanes to rest All Blacks Ardie Savea and Jordie Barrett, their two best players, for the match against the table-topping Chiefs in Hamilton on Saturday should send alarm bells ringing throughout the game here.
The Canes have effectively raised the white flag – they've conceded they probably didn't have a serious chance of winning at Waikato Stadium – and therefore it’s better to hold their two main men back for the remaining two matches of the regular season against the Blues (away) and Crusaders (home).
They are two difficult games ahead of their push into the playoffs but the decision by Jason Holland and company needs to be signalled with a flag of a different colour – red - because while it will be justified with references to All Blacks rest weeks, the logic doesn’t quite follow.
Both skipper Savea, the heart and soul of the Canes' pack, and Barrett, the team's highest points scorer and second highest in the competition behind Damian McKenzie, have had heavy workloads this season but they should have been rested last weekend instead.
The Hurricanes have rested their frontline All Blacks for their clash with the tournament leaders which has rubbed some the wrong way. (Source: 1News)
All Blacks aren’t supposed to play more than five Super Rugby games in a row this season but if they missed last Saturday’s 71-22 thrashing of Moana Pasifika in Wellington, they could have played the remaining three games of the regular season ahead of potentially a quarter-final and semifinal (the final doesn’t count in the All Blacks’ rest requirements).
Earlier this season the Hurricanes beat Moana 51-0 at Mount Smart Stadium. A full-strength Hurricanes were shocked by the Fiji Drua in Suva recently, but at the weekend they were overwhelming favourites to beat a struggling side without a win this season and one coming off a heart-breaking 31-30 defeat to the Blues at Eden Park.
It’s difficult to remember the last time a New Zealand team took such a defeatist attitude into a derby match and the selection policy is another reminder of the cynicism creeping into Super Rugby, a competition with more than enough flaws already.
In March, the Brumbies did something similar when travelling to Christchurch to play the Crusaders without their best players.
Despite being easily the best Australian team, they effectively conceded defeat early and it predictably came to pass - but the derby matches are a bedrock of a competition which already has a tenuous hold on crowds and audiences.
Such a policy is not accepted in other sports. The NBA hands out huge fines to teams who bench or leave out healthy star players in regular season games, and it would cause uproar in the football world which thrives on a tribalism which, for better or worse, is unattainable in rugby.
The Hurricanes, blessed with a favourable draw this season which has helped them maintain their third place on the table (37 competition points), sit behind the Chiefs (46) and Brumbies (41).
The Brumbies have by far the easier run in, but the prize of second place – and a potential home semifinal - is still up for grabs.
Super Rugby has increasingly become a strange and unloved competition – effectively a feeder service into the Australian and New Zealand rugby union national teams and without an independent promotional arm of its own (which is currently being investigated according to NZ Rugby boss Mark Robinson) – but it must protect its integrity at all costs.
The consequences may not be immediately obvious – Holland is just following orders from on high, a position he will find himself in from November – but few could dispute that the game of the round has just become a little less interesting.
Hurricanes team to play Chiefs at Waikato Stadium on Saturday, kick-off 7.05pm:
1. Xavier Numia
2. Jacob Devery
3. Owen Franks
4. James Blackwell
5. Isaia Walker-Leawere
6. Devan Flanders
7. Du’Plessis Kirifi
8. Brayden Iose
9. Cam Roigard
10. Aidan Morgan
11. Kini Naholo
12. Peter Umaga-Jensen
13. Billy Proctor
14. Julian Savea (c)
15. Josh Moorby
Reserves:
16. Hame Faiva
17. Tevita Mafileo
18. Pasilio Tosi
19. Justin Sangster
20. Caleb Delany
21. Jamie Booth
22. Riley Hohepa
23. Salesi Rayasi
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