Bizarre results but they do make sense

If there is one thing you can be sure of in Vodacom Super Rugby it is that the Crusaders will be the exception to any rule. Which is what they have been so far.

Cell C Sharks fans might beg to differ because their team is the other remaining unbeaten team in the competition after two rounds, but that is not what we are talking about. What makes the Crusaders special is not that they have won their two games, but that they have done so with key experienced players missing. The side that smashed the Hurricanes this past weekend was without Sam Whitelock and Kieran Read just for a start, plus many others.

It’s not the first time that the Crusaders have managed to thrive while not at full muster and their ability to do that might be one of the reasons that their coach, Scott Robertson, has been given a contract extension before the new season has even properly gained any kind of momentum.

The Sharks are missing Jean-Luc du Preez at present and there shouldn’t be any denying that he is a big player to miss. Du Preez, who will return from injury in six weeks, is a special talent.

But the Durbanites have all their other top players present, and it has helped them make a fast start to the season, with two bonus point wins putting them on the top of the overall log after a bizarre two rounds which have seen some surprising results.

A bit of digging though behind the detail might make some of what has happened a bit less surprising. And what you find through that digging should send out a message: experience is critically important.

The Vodacom Bulls didn’t follow up in Buenos Aires but there was general consensus after the opening weekend that the addition of Duane Vermeulen and Schalk Brits, two players who have seen it all and done it all, had brought an assurance and composure that had been missing previously.

The team they smashed in that Loftus game, the DHL Stormers, has also had an early season lesson on the value of experience. Their coach Robbie Fleck spoke after his team’s narrow win over the Lions about the extra calmness brought by not only Eben Etzebeth, but also another experienced Bok Frans Malherbe.

It was Etzebeth though who changed the game for the Stormers. When he came on for the second half he not only brought the physical presence that the hosts had previously lacked, he also brought composure and the steely determination that eventually saw them snatch the game.

Supersport commentator Matt Pearce may have put his finger on why the Stormers have taken a step backwards after the initial progress that had been made at the start of the Fleck tenure when he pointed out an interesting fact about Etzebeth. The influential Springbok has played 75 times at international level, but only 55 times for the Stormers.

He missed the entire 2018 Super Rugby season because of injury, he missed most of the previous one too. Fleck’s critics will tell you that you can’t use injuries as an excuse, but when it applies to some players that is nonsense. For instance, it was when Lood de Jager was injured last year that the Bulls lost their mojo. Etzebeth showed when he came on at the weekend how valuable he is, both for his play and for what he adds to Siya Kolisi's leadership group.

Of course Etzebeth wasn’t the only experienced Stormers player to have been missing from Stormers action in the past two years - Damian de Allende has been injured a lot, so has Malherbe - but it is Etzebeth who could make the biggest difference to the Stormers if he remains fit. For he is that good and that influential a player, much in the same way that Vermeulen used to be when he was at the Stormers and now should be for the Bulls.

Likewise Warren Whiteley for the Lions. It may not have been a coincidence that the momentum shift at Newlands coincided with the captain’s departure from the field. Lions coach Swys de Bruin appeared concerned afterwards about the prognosis on Whiteley’s shoulder injury, and so he should be.

Last year the Lions had Franco Mostert to step into the breach as team leader when Whiteley was injured, but they still struggled on occasion when he was absent. In particular, the Lions became very ordinary, and went through a slump, when Malcolm Marx joined Whiteley on the injured list.

It was when that pair returned from injury that the Lions re-established what had been waning authority in the battle for supremacy in the South African conference. If Whiteley is missing for any length of time for the Lions going forward, it will have a massive impact on their chances of retaining the conference trophy they have held firmly in their grip over the last three years.

The Newlands result wasn’t the upset many saw it as. The reaction to the Loftus defeat on the opening weekend was a touch overly hysterical, and the Stormers are always a different animal at home. For much of the way though, until Etzebeth’s arrival and Whiteley’s departure, it looked as though the Stormers, perhaps hung-over from Pretoria, were heading for a chastening Newlands defeat, and Fleck was rightly a relieved man afterwards.

But a more thorough analysis is sometimes required before a line can be drawn at this stage of the season on whether a team is destined for success or failure. The Stormers were underpowered at Loftus, and although publicly they won’t use it as an excuse, that nightmare bus trip that got them to the stadium late had a big impact. And the Bulls on the day were irrepressible.

New Hurricanes head coach John Plumtree may say the same about the Crusaders his team played against in Christchurch. The Hurricanes were outplayed. But take a close look at the Hurricanes team that took the field before you decide that they will just be also-rans in 2019. Plumtree’s starting team that had a distinctly second-string look to it, with no Milner-Skudder, Perenara, no Ngani Laumape and no Beauden Barrett.

As for the Chiefs, who were on the receiving end of the most bizarre result of all this weekend, they are a young team, who desperately need Sam Cane to return from his injury and lead them out of the mess. They’ve lost a raft of experienced players over the past few seasons - Messam, Cruden etc - so maybe it shouldn’t really be surprising that they are now struggling.

WEEKEND RESULTS

Highlanders 36 Reds 31

Sunwolves 30 Waratahs 31

Crusaders 38 Hurricanes 22

Brumbies 54 Chiefs 17

Cell C Sharks 26 Blues 7

DHL Stormers 19 Emirates Lions 17

Jaguares 27 Vodacom Bulls 12