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Chapter 1: What recent events led to the Super Rugby playoffs?
Coming to you from rugby's greatest fortress, New Zealand's national stadium, Eden Park, is the Aotearoa Rugby Park. Kia ora and welcome to another Aotearoa Rugby pod as we head into the Super Rugby playoffs and off a last round that was, well, bizarre.
The Brumbies losing to MP, the Hurricanes, well, kind of B team getting hammered, but it was still a strong team and the Chiefs stacking up the points against the Blues, which leaves us in an interesting position for this week as we head into these, I believe they're called qualifying finals with the six teams that go in there.
Later on this week, we're going to have an interview with Anton Cegna, the blues up and comer who's got a lot of All Blacks buzz about him. So we'll have a chat with him. We're also going to get into the props. What does it look like in the All Black propping stocks at the moment? You know, Chip loves to talk about the front row. You absolutely know it. So we'll get into that as well.
And if you want to catch us, make sure that you go to at Aotearoa Rugby Pod official channels, whether it's YouTube, Audio Pod on our socials as well. Go to stuff.co.nz. We can get the stories. You can get clips. Also go to Rugby Pass. Watch us there and grab those stats while you're there because they are really, really good stats and teach you a lot about the game. So let's get into it.
Let's talk some rugby. Jibber. It was a crazy weekend at Super Rugby.
It is the gift that keeps on giving.
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Chapter 2: How did the Hurricanes perform against the Crusaders?
And even though that Sun team's rested some players, they were still very high-paced, high-intensity games. Some surprises. I'm stoked for Moana Pacifica. They've been oh so close over the last four or five weeks. When the goings got tough, they've seemed to galvanise and played some of their best footy. And to get the result in Canberra, man, that is not an easy place to go.
It was a hell of a win there. I mean, who knows if it's their last game or it's not their last game. There's so much chat about what is or what isn't happening there. But to put that out there for that game was super important for them as a team.
Yeah, just the grit and determination they showed. Even when they had the red card last, you sort of thought, oh, here it is. They're going to lose, unfortunately, again. But they just hung tough, and Pellegrini had some sort of game.
Their big guys really stood up. Now, let's bring in Bryn Hall. I'll press the button over here, and here he is on the screen.
Chapter 3: What insights can we gain from the Brumbies' defeat to Moana Pasifika?
Oh, Bryn. You've obviously got a massive game today, Bryn. Thank you for joining us on game day once again. Semi-final time.
Yeah, it is. And welcome back, Chipper. Good to see you, mate. Good to have you back on the show.
Chapter 4: Who are the standout players to watch in the Super Rugby finals?
Good to have you here, mate.
Only just, Brennan. I can assure you of that.
Chapter 5: What is the current state of the All Blacks' prop selections?
It's always a good trip, mate, especially going to Las Vegas, right? But now we've got Panasonic, guys, one of the best teams in the competition this year. We had a narrow loss to them in the round robin. I think they won in the last maybe three or four minutes, having 36 phases. So, yeah, it's a big weekend. Corby have just beaten Suntory the day before.
So, yeah, whoever wins is going to go up against Corby. So, yeah, it's going to be a good week and a good turnout from our fans.
nailing a title in Japan and a couple of games. Another tattoo. Is there room?
Well, maybe he needs to go to the other arm. Different competition. Go to the other pipe.
If we end up doing the job, you might see a tattoo coming up. Got to do a few more bicep kills.
Right, let's chat about this final round because it was... really important for setting up who was going to get that home playoff spot and where everyone else would go. And we've ended up in a spot where the Crusaders did something quite extraordinary. I know Gypra was a Hurricanes second string team to some degree, but on paper, that team looked much better than the score shows. From
The Hurricanes' point of view, like, it just shows, like, and I just think, like, attack, Bryn, you can sort of get away with chopping and changing, but when you have, like, wholesale changes, defensively, even though the structures are the same, I think that cohesion is, you know, it's just test a little bit more. It just means you're a second off. And, like, when you look at it,
They still won the breakdown. They had five penalties to three, but they only gave away three penalties, and I felt like they just probably didn't get the slow ball nature that they used to, which gives them time to set. The Crusaders had really quick ball. And what I noticed, Bryn, as well, is the width of that first pod was so wide.
And what that did to the Crusaders, the Hurricanes' defense is they were either still bouncing to make sure that that pass doesn't beat four or five players, like they're bouncing, but the pass is already coming as they're bouncing, so they're not getting off the line, which made the outsides hesitate. And the wingers didn't have that ability to fly and jam. They sort of got caught halfway house.
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Chapter 6: How do the Crusaders' attacking strategies impact their performance?
I thought they did really well at the start of the game where they took everything at the front. Their biggest weapon is potentially quick throw-ons. Anything that's over the sideline, try and up-tempo play quick throw-ons. And then the other thing is just get there first.
I'll never forget, I tell this story all the time because it used to irritate the hell out of me when I was playing, is in 2012 and 2013, Brodie Retallick, they were struggling at line-out time. They went on to win the comp. He would sprint to the five-meter line with two lifters and just say, give it to me. So they just beat this opposition there. They're like, yep, this is a weakness of ours.
We're going to turn it into a strength. So we're the fitter side. So line-out is the easiest thing to win if the opposition aren't there. So if you set first and you have that mindset to go,
only place you can't do it from is penalties and and potentially probably going back into your defensive 22 i think if you start rushing it back there you could find yourself in trouble but outside of that you can really try and um win that race um i do think like a bit of context as well like I love the effort of Sinkinson's try, but that bounce was brutal for poor old Stevie.
Josh Jacob read it really well in terms of that grubber through. So there's an element of just making sure that, again, defensively in their backfield coverage that they're not I suppose they're catching balls on the full or cleaning up or at least painting a picture, you know, paint a picture to force them to kick, but you know, you're going to be back or whatever it may be.
But there were, there was some, the chiefs were rewarded for effort. off the ball with a lot of those kicks nine times out of ten it doesn't bounce like that but it did and they were there and they made the most of it so it's just again those effort areas just making sure they're on give them the best opportunity under roof man it's going to be quick it's a different ball game and it feels like
It suits the Crusader players. They look so good under the roof.
It's amazing how when the Crusader's machine clicks, how Severu Reece suddenly is everywhere.
He was outstanding on the weekend. The fact that it was his 100th game probably led to that occasion as well. But yeah, no, you're right. Like his...
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