Aisle be back: The Super Rugby final (and the semi-final defeat)

Above: The Super Rugby trophy, which the Hurricanes will have to wait another year to win again.

So it ends with a whimper and not a bang, and in the heart of hearts, it’s felt like that was where the Hurricanes were headed for a number of weeks.

Whatever your level of disappointment, I personally try to frame it in these terms. Basically, in any year before 2016, we’d be celebrating being in the semi-finals. It would typically represent a season of over-achieving

Nowadays, it’s a kick in the guts not to be there at the final.

That’s how successfully the Hurricanes have reframed themselves. Not a team of champions, but a team of champion contenders.

So I won’t be kicking Chris Boyd as he heads out the door. Just like I still have considerable regard for how Mark Hammett started the turnaround. Because the Hurricanes, like any team, do not haul themselves into consistent contender status in just one or two seasons.

You can come up with any number of theories about what went wrong this season and particularly in the latter half. I’m not sure I’ve got the energy for that. I am sure we missed Coles and Proctor most critically in the leadership stakes.

I do have the energy to list a few things that need to change if the 2019 Canes are to stick in the top tier. These are my own prejudices, and you’ll have your own, and the people who actually make this happen, will have their own.

First up, and obviously, the pack needs to be our strong suit, not our middling one. By all means have a stellar backline, but it often feels like the Ferrari in the garage without the fuel to pay for it. Is it the players, or is it the coaching? This has been the refrain for way too long.

Second up, can we stop being out-thought in crunch games. The tactical plans suggest the Canes have one plan. Does the team have other gears?

Finally, what’s with the rubbish start to the season. Stop dropping the first game, it just makes life harder sometime later in the season.

I’m already looking forward to 2019. Plumtree and the Wizard. These are the Hurricanes after all, and there’s no way life can be dull.

+++++

So what about them Crusaders eh?

They’ve delivered such a professional campaign this season that they remain a blueprint, after all these years, for how to keep excelling.

You can look to their All Black laden pack, and their very solid backline, and leave it at that.

But there seems to be a through line in their processes, and structure, that both maximises their experienced core, and keeps promoting a production line of good successors.

I could be wrong, but they seem to suffer less attrition of their playing stocks overseas, and to have a depth of solid quality to step in to the inevitable gaps.

It’s a template that seems to rarely dip. And if you look beyond your parochial biases, it is a very good thing for New Zealand rugby.

We don’t want to see a team of Canta Blacks, because that hasn’t worked in the past. But to have the rest of the New Zealand conference having a bar to aspire to that is set at a high level is ideal.

Good luck to the red and blacks this weekend. But they surely do not need it.