Rugby Union
Is Lakapi still Super or nah?...
The 2023 Super Rugby Pacific finals series is upon us.
by Simon Amani I 13th June 2023
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We have found our top 4 teams out of 12, after 14 regular season games. In last week's round, teams had a warmup game they called the quarter-finals but let’s be real, u can’t have quarter-finals that involve teams with a 35% winning season. I didn’t watch any of these games and to be honest, I’ve really only watched 3 games all year. I did however watch the interviews following the Hurricanes and Brumbies match and I felt for the uso Ardie Savea, a true Warrior every time he puts on the Hurricanes jersey. Anyways, the man was emotional after they were screwed by the ref, as Ardie scored the winning try that was disallowed. Love this guy every time he speaks. He is a true role model to any rising athlete on how to conduct themselves with the media, not to mention he’s just a Beast on the field every time he plays.
Anyways, here we are, Blues vs Crusaders this Friday night in Christchurch and the Chiefs vs Brumbies in Hamilton this Saturday night. Are we excited? Have we been tuning in? For me, this is the first time I have shown zero interest in the round robin of Super Rugby, I feel like compared to NRL, the Super Rugby as a product is not as exciting. Maybe it's because I have been living in Southeast Queensland for the last 10 years where at the moment people are talking State of Origin and there has been not much Super Rugby hype at all over here. How’s it been back in Aotearoa? It feels like it’s been the same old teams with Brumbies repping Australia all the time and Crusaders breaking Blues fan's hearts possibly again. The Chiefs appear to be the best team this year, but do we really think anyone else but the Crusaders will win again for the 100th time? Has this fact added to the lack of interest? Has the Crusaders domination over the years led to people turning away?
So many questions, mainly because I have not followed the competition this year. I'll be watching my Blues this weekend though and cheering them on in the hope we don’t have to see Scott Robertson break dancing this year. Let’s hope the powers that be figure out how to revive this competition because it feels as if it’s been dying a slow death for a while, and people are just waiting for the All Blacks season to begin.