We saw this morning two very interesting matches involving the winners and runners-up in last year's tournament. We also saw that the teams were all weakened by the absence of the players who either finished their careers or signed foreign contracts.
So what have we learned from those two matches?
The facts are -
* that both losing teams were beaten because of weaknesses in their forward combinations - the Hurricanes more spectacularly than the Highlanders - but even so the forwards were both deficient;
* that the Hurricanes without Conrad Smith and Ma'a Nonu has a very questionable backline which collapse under pressure and that Barrett under presure is not a nice sight to see.
There was an improvement in the performance of the Blues - with a hugely different approach of cohesion and enthusiasm shown by the team evidently initiated by Umaga. How far that would go is another question.
I think that the way the Blues lifted their game from what it was last year is admirable. The opposite can be said of the performance of the Hurricanes - they obviously was clueless and totally devoid of Tight 5 forwards. That means they will go one way in this years competition and that is downwards. Because of that deficiency the Brumbies played the fool with them. I really think that the Brumbies today showed what they are capable of - but am not sure whether they were so good or the opposition too weak to give us a reliable indication of what they can produce this year.
In conclusion I have been watching Hurricanes games for years and I have never once seen them being smashed like they were this morning. They were diosastrously poor - end of story.
Coach57,555 posts
26 Feb 2016, 16:25
#1
26 Feb 2016, 16:25#1
