Scotty Stevenson: On The Sidelines — April 22

The virtue of patience and the Crusaders' lack of it

While rival fans may be enjoying the unravelling of the Crusaders, there is little joy in this corner watching a team so accustomed to sustained success languish at the bottom of Super Rugby’s ladder.

After five straight losses to start the season, the 37-26 home victory over the enigmatic Chiefs in round six appeared to suggest the good times were about to roll once again. Instead, two straight losses to the Waratahs and the Force have exposed fresh fragility.

Losing a game of footy is one thing, but it is the manner of defeat that must surely be causing the most internal angst. The Waratahs should never have been able to level the match in Sydney two weeks ago, but Johnny McNicholl quite literally handed them the opportunity with full time showing. Against the Force on the weekend the Crusaders created plenty of opportunities but seemed intent upon shooting themselves in both feet.

Super Rugby’s overly generous play-off system means the Crusaders can still find a way into the top eight, but their toughest opponent right now is the frustration building inside themselves. If there was one common thread through every championship-winning Crusaders side, and one that seems to have frayed this season, it was an unwavering belief in the power of patience.

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Champion Crusaders sides ground down other sides. They did this through relentless execution of the basics and knew they could do so for longer than most, if not all, other sides. If something wasn’t working in a game, they kept doing it until it did work. Against the Force, and too often this season, the Crusaders expected outcome without due process. This is a mindset they will have to change if they are to make an unlikely run at the post-season.

There is no shortage of raw talent in the Crusaders, but someone has to stand up to manage the game. It was never going to be an easy assignment to plug the gaps left by the absences of Scott Barrett, Codie Taylor, Richie Mo’unga and Will Jordan, but with respect to the current issue, the player this team misses the most is Sam Whitelock. Those very big shoes remain unfilled. The return of Codie Taylor this week is at least one bonus.

So says Chiefs CEO Simon Graafhuis who took the time to speak with Sidelines on Friday in response to last Monday’s column on the Warriors’ fan connection and rugby’s lack of it. It was an intriguing conversation and there is no doubt Graafhuis is passionate about what the Chiefs are doing and what they will be able to do in the future.

You can read more about that conversation here, but one of the more intriguing challenges for Super Rugby clubs in New Zealand remains the tension between the New Zealand Rugby high performance system and the selection autonomy, an entity in a professional competition might expect. The current contracting model may need to be overhauled, but that will be no easy task given the collective agreements in place in the sport.

When pressed on whether Super Rugby could be enhanced as a competition by a more liberalised player market, Graafhuis noted, rightly, that “The balance has to be right. How do you not block the talent coming through? How do you back the young ones and bring in the experience?” It’s a good question.

In my mind, one of Super Rugby’s priorities must be to find a way to live outside the shadow of the international game. As long as it continues to be viewed largely as a development tool for the All Blacks (or Wallabies for that matter) it will remain in a position of subservience. The national body needs it to be that way to protect its biggest asset, and therein lies the rub.

The new Super Rugby commission has a huge role to play in setting a future framework for the competition and it is understood the appointment of the first Chief Executive is imminent. Once in place you would hope the clubs can find a renewed sense of purpose.

Last week the New Zealand Olympic Committee announced its 15-strong track and field team for the Paris Olympic Games and pole vaulter Eliza McCartney was among them. McCartney leapt to prominence in New Zealand when she claimed bronze at the Rio games in 2016 but her path to Paris after missing out on a Tokyo spot, has been anything but smooth.

McCartney’s story is her own, and it’s beautifully rendered here, but in her challenges she encapsulates the struggles of so many athletes who perform for the most part in relative obscurity all in the hope of one day being a part of the IOC’s quadrennial stage show.

One athlete who won’t be in Paris is Olivia Merry, undoubtedly one of the greatest hockey players to have donned the black singlet. Merry, capped a staggering 286 times, announced her retirement from the sport following the series victory against Japan last weekend. In her time the striker scored 128 goals, and none have scored more.

Regular captain Megan Hull said: “She is the epitome of what it means to be a Black Stick, and anyone who has had the privilege of playing with her, against her, or meeting her is better for it.”

Merry was, along with the rest of the side, devastated to miss qualification for Paris and, after 12 years in the national side, the thought of another four-year cycle must have been overwhelming. I watched Merry help guide a young Black Sticks team to victory on the North Shore of Tāmaki Makaurau last week and there was absolutely no sense that she had lost any of her competitive drive, or desire to help the team succeed.

Her retirement though does remind me of the challenges for athletes in Olympic Sports, and the brutality of an existence that rests so heavily on qualifying for one event every four years. Merry deserves to be recognised for an exceptional career, and hopefully she will be able to reflect on all she has achieved, rather than one event she missed.

It was a big week for big name signings with James Fisher-Harris’s decision to leave Penrith for Penrose still generating headlines on both sides of the Tasman. It is undoubtedly a huge coup for the Warriors which surely now boasts the most hyphenated team of all time. As important as his on-field prowess is, the signal this sends to the competition is equally so. Fisher-Harris is one of the best performers in the sport, is at the peak of his powers, and has left a premiership dynasty for a team still searching for a first banner. That is quite the move.

Speaking of moves, Jordie Barrett is off to Leinster for a season before returning to New Zealand on an extended contract with the Hurricanes and New Zealand rugby. Reaction to this has been predictably mixed both in Ireland and here in New Zealand. The Irish are wondering why they need him, and the kiwis are worried about what they’ll do to him.

It’s a free market out there (and not here) but this is yet another player leaving New Zealand to play rugby elsewhere. Regardless of the intention to return and to commit long term to the sport here, another competition gets to hog the headlines smack bang in the middle of Super Rugby, which Barrett’s own Hurricanes are heading.

Then there is the Joseph Manu move to rugby and via the Toyota Verblitz. Rugby is claiming this one as a code victory, and some pundits couldn’t resist mapping a pathway to All Blacks eligibility for Manu even while the ink was drying on the contract. If you want the best for Manu in rugby, please pray Ian Foster and Steve Hansen don’t play him at 12.

There’s not much you can do about the timing of the current T20 series between New Zealand and Pakistan but the fact Pakistan have home advantage and a full roster of its biggest stars available means this was always going to be a challenging assignment for the Blackcaps. No one would have thought it would be a 90-all out kind of challenge, but so it was in match number two, after the first was abandoned due to rain last week.

Ish Sodhi did his best to find positives in the loss – Pakistan cruised to a 7-wicket win inside 13 overs – but the real issue here is of course New Zealand’s leading lights are on IPL duty while Pakistan’s players never will be. How that makes for a fair and competitive international series, I am not sure. International cricket has to stay relevant but the IPL and its spin offs in South Africa and the USA are going to make that a tougher proposition.

New Zealand Rugby’s governance saga continues. We’ll be paying close attention to the provincial unions and whether they can find a united front. There continues to be a disconnect between the unions, the national body and the players’ association on how the transition to an ‘independent’ board will work. It will be fascinating to see which body blinks first, and who holds the real power in rugby.

The Wellington Phoenix remain top of the A-League with one game remaining and all eyes on the clash with Macarthur. They are just a solitary point clear of Central Coast who have two games left. The Phoenix could yet miss out on the Premiers Plate if the Mariners can bag both matches, but surely interest in the club will soar here as the play offs begin

Super Rugby has a full trans-Tasman round. There was a time when the thought of that may have left New Zealand fans shaking their heads, but there are no guarantees for the New Zealand teams. The Chiefs play the Tahs in Sydney, while the high flying Canes are at Canberra against a Brumbies side chastened by the Blues over the weekend. The Highlanders are desperate for a win against an improved Force side, and the Reds, who shut out the Landers on the weekend are no easy assignment for the impressive Blues. The Crusaders host the Rebels and may not be favourites. Let that sink in for a second.