DSPN - Devlin Sports Podcast Network
Super Rugby Sudden-Death: Who survives The Quarter-Finals?
02 Jun 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
I think the World Cup as an incentive, the competition for places in the Wallabies, you've just got to hope it brings better out of them next year.
It's probably between him and Ruben Love right now. Does he put his hand up to John O'Keefe and say, I want that jersey, I need to be playing in that jersey for Dave Rennie to see me?
They took quite a long time to make a decision that went upstairs. It was because the ref wanted to make absolutely sure that the crowd could see on the big screen why the try was being ruled out. Welcome to the DSPN.
Time off! The Devlin Sports Podcast Network.
DSPN, thanks so much for joining us. Tony Johnson from Sky Sport about to join us. A couple of different things we're going to talk about. Tony, we're going to go through the three qualifying finals this weekend. Do any of the outsiders have a hope? The top three seeds look so strong. As well as that, we've got a best and worst of Super Rugby after round 16.
What we've seen so far, what we've loved about it, what we think could be improved about it. Click that subscribe button. DSPN YouTube channel, that always helps. And if you want to be part of Changing Sheds on Friday, text DSPN to this number 3598. Tony, so good to have you here. A couple of things we just got to make mention of. Same six teams as last year in these three qualifying finals.
We've got a bit of a different mix. But just to remind you of what happened last year, the Chiefs played the Blues. That was one versus six. And that upset from the Blues. Caused a rule change this year so it can't happen again. So if one or two lose, they go to the bottom of the pecking order in terms of the rankings of the semi-finalists.
So they won't get a double home life if you lose a game, which is entirely fair. But when we looked at it last year, we probably thought maybe the Canes have got a chance in Canberra. But the Chiefs and the Crusaders just look so much better than everyone else. And then the Blues turn around and play their best game of the season. So let's start Friday night, mate. Canes and Brumbies.
And we've talked about this with Jamie on Sunday. As a Hurricanes fan and a person who grew up in Wellington, any time you get a beating like that from any kind of Canterbury rugby side, it hurts. But is that the one time that the Hurricanes will be not as concerned about a loss like that as they might be normally, Tone?
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Chapter 2: What strategic choices are the Hurricanes making against the Crusaders?
You know, they did not send their best ammunition down to that game. And the result of that means... It's the old scenario about rust versus rest, I guess you could say. You know, rest, yeah, get a few tired bodies patched up. Rust... lose a bit of momentum, lose your playing mojo over a week off, something like that. I don't know.
I actually think this one hasn't turned out at all badly for them. It didn't matter to them. It mattered a hell of a lot for the Crusaders. Yes, it did, yeah. And they came through with another good win in front of another sellout crowd. And I understand that, by the way, Martin, that the tickets...
for the match in Christchurch against the Blues within 20 minutes all of the public sales were pretty much gone there might have been the odd one there or one there so it just goes to show again just the magic of that stadium but also this is the time of the year when the tough get going and the Crusaders it's in their DNA it's a dangerous sign of winning Crusaders team at this time of the season but
No, I don't think it really, in the overall scheme of things, I think whatever they risked in terms of losing momentum, I think far outweighed by the fact that they come back home with a refreshed squad. A lot of guys having had that week off just to rest some tired bodies. I think it puts them in good stead.
Well, they play a Brumby side. We'll get on to the Crusaders in a second because you talk about momentum. I mean, they've got the big M stamped on them at the moment. They've just beaten the three New Zealand sides and they've racked up, I think, the best part of 120 points doing it or something like that. But you look at this Brumby side, start of the season 3-0.
We were talking after they put 50 on the Crusaders in Christchurch. They looked like a team that all of a sudden, and we all always hope, I think, Tony, that one of the Australian teams is going to be more than competitive, a really good chance of winning it. They come into this 2-2 on the way home. But in their last four games, lost to the Reds, beat the Force, beat the Waratahs, lost to MP.
And that loss on the weekend to Moana. Fantastic result for Moana. But Brumby's side coming into the finals, now going to Wellington. You talk about poor preparation. This side has just wobbled from that 3-0 start.
Well, that... 50-point performance against the Crusaders had us all talking about the Brumbies of yesteryear. We're thinking this is a Brumbies team that has the hallmarks of those great teams from around particularly the early 2000s when Larkham and Gregan and Co and Sterling Mortlock and And, you know, when they were running the show, George Smith and Ko Owen Finnegan, such a great team.
We thought, God, this could be a remake of something like that. I think the injury to Charlie Cale was a real blow to them. But, yeah, they've just been so horribly inconsistent. And so you get to the end of the year and you look back at what's happened the last few weeks and you go, no, there's nothing of what we thought was there in terms of that.
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Chapter 3: What impact does the 'rest vs rust' dilemma have on team performance?
There's a couple of reasons. One is the way they're able to control the ball, to keep the ball in hand, to kick smartly, kick long. But also discipline comes into it as well. If you're not giving away penalties... you're not giving opposition teams a chance to set up inside your own 22. So there's a lot of factors go into it.
But yeah, it is something that's been quite remarkable about their performance this year. But most of it is I just think they're a great team to watch play rugby. They have been brilliant.
Their loose forwards, though, if there is a concern coming into this game, if you had to just press one, would it be the fact that Duplessis has been out injured, Flanders has been out injured, and we don't know whether those, because we don't know the teams yet, whether those guys, Fahey we think comes back for the semi-final.
So there's a couple of big names missing, but especially in that loose forward trio, which again, you know, all of us have seen this year, and you've been very complimentary about the way that those guys have worked together.
Yeah, they've got depth. They've got depth. And on the subject of Fihi, it does look now like he is going to be staying in New Zealand.
It's brilliant news, isn't it?
Sensible news. Clearly, some sort of settlement has been made. I think New Zealand rugby would have got involved in that. I would say the urgency factor would have gone up several notches. with the Caleb Tangitao injury, because I think he was the shot side to take that number 14 jersey. So it's a great opportunity. He deserves it.
He deserves an all-black jersey on the basis of how he's played, not just his finishing, but also his awareness, just some of the skills that he's bought from the sevens game. So, yeah, they'll want to have him back. But if he's not 100, then you don't want to be playing players...
At this stage of the season, if there's a risk of them aggravating injuries, this is probably one weekend where you think, well, let's just back the deck on our squad.
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Chapter 4: How do the Crusaders maintain their winning momentum?
They would need to produce their best performance of the season. But let's not forget that apart from the last time they played the Hurricanes, and they came a definite second in that game, they'd beaten the other New Zealand teams.
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Past performance is not an indicator of future performance. Product disclosure statement available at generalfinance.co.nz. Let's go to Saturday afternoon then, and terrific news if that's the case of yet another sellout, which means that every game the Crusaders have played in the new stadium has been sold out.
Well, yeah, as we are talking now, my understanding is public sales, it was pretty much a sellout. There might have been the odd single seat dotted around the place, but... Up those 75 steps or whatever it is. But again, that's just... It's really the magic. Something has really caught on, hasn't it?
Yeah, and look, I keep saying it. I know people get bored with the saying it, but you've got to go there, and I think it's a real incentive to go there for Super Round next year. Once you get a little bite of it, and it's not just the stadium, but what goes on around and everything like that. It was a terrific weekend that weekend, and I can understand the excitement.
But it becomes the 16th player, doesn't it? Of course. That crowd, a full crowd. I was talking to one of the referees. Plus the horse he's about. I was talking to one of the referees after the game there a couple of weeks ago, and they took quite a long time to make a decision that went upstairs.
It was because the ref wanted to make absolutely sure that the crowd could see on the big screen why the try was being ruled out, because he could hear them. They were riding him. So as I say, I think that crowd does become a bit of a weapon.
And it's also a cauldron of sound, as the other thing is.
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Chapter 5: How has the Brumbies' performance fluctuated this season?
Smacked by the Chiefs, 59-34. Conceding almost 45 points a game in the last three games. That, to me, is the biggest worry. It's not the win-losses. It's the amount of points they're conceding.
Well, if you drew up one of those graphs that you see either in the papers or the websites or on TV about where the support for political parties is going, and you've got one going like that and one going like that, that kind of tells the story. of the lead into this game.
The red line and the blue line.
The red line and the blue line. And the blue line is going down. There's something clearly is not right within the Blues. You keep hearing that. And they've got to put that behind them. And they're capable of doing that. I think, you know, they know now one big performance
In this game, and their season is right back on track, it's very hard to see it the way things have been going in recent weeks. But just turn things around, one big performance. That's what happened last year against the Chiefs, right? Yeah, absolutely. What's interesting about this game, it's being sandwiched in between the other two games.
So if the Hurricanes win on Friday night, well, that increases their chances, the loser of that game, of getting the life. If the Hurricanes were to lose that game, then it becomes absolute sudden death.
Yeah, right.
And you lose that and don't come Monday.
Right. So then the Blues, whatever happens, they're looking at the Chiefs Reds, and we'll get onto that in a second. But I feel like the Chiefs Reds is a bit like the Hurricanes and the Brumbies, in that it's so hard to see one of the Aussie teams coming here and winning. But let's go back to the Crusaders Blues.
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Chapter 6: What are the chances of the Brumbies upsetting the Hurricanes?
You're getting injuries. And there's some concern, obviously, about Fletcher Newell, not just from the Crusaders' point of view, but also from the bigger picture, that of the All Blacks. Seb Cald is out at the moment. Of course, Tamaiti Williams is gone for the season. So there's three...
of their front line, three players from within what would have been automatic selections for a match day 23, they are gone. So that's going to test their depth a wee bit there, and it's going to put a fair bit of heat on Cody Taylor and George Bauer in that front row to hold things together. So yeah, maybe that's a fact. Will Jordan, of course, being out, that's another big one as well.
I think, you know, as we've said often, Johnny McNichol is an accomplished player. He brings a lot of experience, which will be an invaluable thing in a match like this. It's not like this is a lay-down Mazia.
No, I feel like that too. And I also feel like, as well as the Crusaders have played in their last three games, and they finished 8-6, the same as the Blues, the same as the Reds, it doesn't feel like an imperious Crusaders side, does it?
No, it still doesn't have that same, you know, go back to the Halcyon days. I mean, yeah, they are a champion team, but... Are they, particularly with some of the players that are missing, are they that imposing? You'd have to say not quite. But they're still the Crusaders. They're still playing in front of their home fans in Christchurch. And they've got the bit between their teeth.
They've got into some winning form. The belief levels will have risen. They seem to have shaken off some of that awful inconsistency that was bothering a lot of the teams earlier on in the year. So they've got a bit of a run going here. Look, you know, I said of the three games, this is the one where if there was an upset possible, it would be this one.
But I still think the Crusaders will win it.
Last time they lost round 12 against the Hurricanes, 38-31, that game in Wellington, right? All right. And then we go to Saturday night after the Crusaders Blues and Chiefs host Reds. I presume that Damien McKenzie is going to come back for this game. He has been well rested after his concussion. We don't know. The teams aren't out yet.
But what I was so impressed with was the attitude of that Chiefs side. There were a lot of changes made to it. But once they got into the lead, I think it was 26-20, once they started pulling away with the points, they were ruthless, man. In their last 20 minutes, they were just smacked down and they just refused to stop scoring tries and points.
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Chapter 7: What rumors are circulating about Moana Pasifika's future?
I hope that that's what they're motivated by, which is why I think that they smacked the Blues up so much, because they were remembering last year and the embarrassment and also how it derailed their season. And so they weren't leaving anything to chance. I just thought the attitude was spot on for them.
Yeah, some of those guys must be sick of finishing runner-up. Yeah.
Or the nearly tag, absolutely. And I hope they are.
They're a good shot at it. There's no question. What's going to be interesting to me is who plays 10, who plays 15. I think Jacob, look, he's not the completed article yet. We've talked about there are still areas of his game that will have to be developed, but I love the way he attacks the line. He's brave. He makes a lot of good covering defense moves as well.
So, does he go back to Mackenzie at fullback and Jakem at 10? Or does he start Mackenzie and then shuffle them later on? Because I love what we've seen from Isaac Hutchinson when he has played at fullback and Liam Coombs fabling. They've got options. Imoni Narawa was another one who was at the dinner the other night. You think about the depth. That's five names that are coming back in.
Kyron Taumoi-Falau is looking in really good form as well. And then Of course, they get Tupai back, and Daniel Rona, I think him coming back as well, although how impressive was Rion Paul?
I remember I had a chat with his Bay of Plenty coach about him, Richard Watt, and he was saying that this guy, he's got explosive power, and he's still developing his game, but you saw in the game on Saturday night just what a threat he could be. They have got Rona.
Real weapons. Real weapons, yeah. So just finally on that, what do you do if you're Damien McKenzie? Because obviously you're looking at the July tests as well. And he wants to start for the All Blacks in the number 10 jersey. And it's probably between him and Ruben Love right now. And so does he put his hand up to John Gibbs and say, I want that jersey.
I need to be playing in that jersey for Dave Rennie to see me. Although Dave Rennie knows him pretty well.
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