Super Rugby 2024
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"If the Super Rugby Pacific regular season ended today, Hurricanes would meet the 4-6 Fijian Drua in a quarterfinal in Wellington."
"There would be no second chance for the Hurricanes if they were to slip up in the quarterfinal, even if they had won twice as many games as the Drua during the regular season."
"As things stand, four Super Rugby teams have won more games than they lost this season. Five have a positive points differential."
"The Crusaders have won two of their 10 matches yet they only need one win to jump back into the top eight."
That says it all really...
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@ruggabee change it to a top 6. Top two teams get a week to rest before hosting semi finals while the other four battle it out in the quarters. Atm there isn't really any advantage of making the top two apart from hosting.
If the Canes had to play the Crusaders in a quarter this year, so be it. I think our side, with our set piece and the great balance with our loosies/backs, I think we'll have no problem taking care of them at home. It would be a different story if we had to go down to their stadium in those miserable winter conditions that give them such a big advantage at this point of the season.
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@Canes4life said in Super Rugby 2024:
@ruggabee change it to a top 6. Top two teams get a week to rest before hosting semi finals while the other four battle it out in the quarters. Atm there isn't really any advantage of making the top two apart from hosting.
Yes, although that would just mean less fixtures in an already short competition.
I think it's more vital for the competition going forward to have a complete home and away (which is 20 games if Rebels are cut) regular season. So you don't have teams like Brumbies qualifying above NZ sides like Chiefs due to playing more fixtures against other Australian teams.
Then have a top 4 or 6 finals, I don't really care which option as long as the above happens.
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@Canes4life So it's basically the English Premiership, except with 11 teams instead of 10?
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@Bones said in Super Rugby 2024:
Just have top 6 and get rid of the pointless byes.
Laughable that in the current format a team could literally go undefeated, win 14/14 games and potentially get knocked out by the 8th/12 ranked team that had won 3/14 games, it doesn't reward the last 15 weeks of consistency, there's so many external variables a coach can't control and a one-off upset in this case should not override the achievement of the previous 15 weeks of consistency.
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@Bones said in Super Rugby 2024:
@ruggabee or - if you can't beat the 8th placed team when you've beaten all comers and they've struggled to even win, then you don't deserve to progress on in the finals and can be happy you smashed the regular season.
that's just silly, a playoff birth is supposed to be a reward for your season performance, if a team has lost more games than they've won (ie a losing record) then they don't deserve to get a chance to compete for the championship full stop. If the regular season doesn't matter then you might as well just give all 12 teams a playoff spot, participation medals for everyone bro...
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@ruggabee said in Super Rugby 2024:
@Bones said in Super Rugby 2024:
@ruggabee or - if you can't beat the 8th placed team when you've beaten all comers and they've struggled to even win, then you don't deserve to progress on in the finals and can be happy you smashed the regular season.
that's just silly, a playoff birth is supposed to be a reward for your season performance, if a team has lost more games than they've won (ie a losing record) then they don't deserve to get a chance to compete for the championship full stop. If the regular season doesn't matter then we should just give all 12 teams a playoff spot, participation medals for everyone bro...
Nah we should just cancel playoffs as knock out rugby is unfair! Wah!
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@Bones said in Super Rugby 2024:
@ruggabee said in Super Rugby 2024:
@Bones said in Super Rugby 2024:
@ruggabee or - if you can't beat the 8th placed team when you've beaten all comers and they've struggled to even win, then you don't deserve to progress on in the finals and can be happy you smashed the regular season.
that's just silly, a playoff birth is supposed to be a reward for your season performance, if a team has lost more games than they've won (ie a losing record) then they don't deserve to get a chance to compete for the championship full stop. If the regular season doesn't matter then we should just give all 12 teams a playoff spot, participation medals for everyone bro...
Nah we should just cancel playoffs as knock out rugby is unfair! Wah!
World's best team agrees
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@ruggabee said in Super Rugby 2024:
@Bones said in Super Rugby 2024:
@ruggabee or - if you can't beat the 8th placed team when you've beaten all comers and they've struggled to even win, then you don't deserve to progress on in the finals and can be happy you smashed the regular season.
that's just silly, a playoff birth is supposed to be a reward for your season performance, if a team has lost more games than they've won (ie a losing record) then they don't deserve to get a chance to compete for the championship full stop. If the regular season doesn't matter then you might as well just give all 12 teams a playoff spot, participation medals for everyone bro...
i definitely agree we should be 4 or at most 6 teams in the playoffs...i think almost everyone except the rugby administrators is in agreement...but dont take it too such an extreme you make the argument look stupid...top of the table gets home games, thats the main reward for finishing as high as possible
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@ruggabee said in Super Rugby 2024:
"The Crusaders have won two of their 10 matches yet they only need one win to jump back into the top eight."
Two from eleven.
@Canes4life said in Super Rugby 2024:
Top two teams get a week to rest before hosting semi finals
Fun fact time! The winner of Super has always come from the top or second place getter - except for the 2015 Highlanders (who from memory only placed 4th because the Tahs and Stormers were top of their regional conference.
So if you're not 1st or 2nd, you're not winning (based on 20 years of history)
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@KiwiMurph said in Super Rugby 2024:
@nzzp said in Super Rugby 2024:
Fun fact time! The winner of Super has always come from the top or second place getter - except for the 2015 Highlanders
Eh? 1999 Landers vs Crusaders final was 3rd vs 4th on the ladder.
Right you are - missed that on the way through.
I'll walk back to only once since 96 has a team outside the top 2 points won the comp
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@nzzp am i miss reading? wouldnt that be twice since 96 (1999 and 2015)
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@Kiwiwomble said in Super Rugby 2024:
@nzzp am i miss reading? wouldnt that be twice since 96 (1999 and 2015)
I was trying to say 'in the top two with competition points' - as the Highlanders were 2nd on points, but 4th on the table.
Edit: I no good English today.
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With the finals structure and the way Super Rugby Pacific is currently constructed - travel isn't nearly the issue that it was under previous versions of Super Rugby as relates to finals. Having to play a semi final in RSA/Arg and then a final in Aus/NZ the next weekend (or visca versca) was pretty tough going
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while the over all tone i can't really get on board with, the narrative that the Aussie sides have got better compared to NZ sides is surface level at best.
In 2023 their record v NZ opposition was 5-21 for an average score of 23-36
In 2024 the record is 9-15 for an average score of 22-32The difference is almost exclusively the Crusaders falling off a cliff. In 2023 the 5 aussie wins were over the Landers x3, the Chiefs and Blues once each. The Crusaders and Canes both went 5-0 v Aussie teams.
This year once again the Chiefs lost to the Reds, the Blues have gone 5-0 but the Hurricanes slipped up in Canberra. The Landers lost their 3 games again. And the Crusaders have gone 1-4.
Last year there were 6 losses 20+ points, this year 8 (so far)The Reds are better, the Crusaders much much worse. The Force and the Brumbies have gone backwards, the Tahs better because they got to play the Crusaders twice.
