Super Rugby Pacific’s credibility as a competition will be under the microscope this weekend as fading hopes of an Australian revival meet the cold reality of New Zealand dominance in a much-criticized playoffs format.
In a 12-team competition, three Australian sides have qualified for the generous eight-team finals series, but collectively face a huge task to avoid a New Zealand whitewash in the quarter-finals.
The Queensland Reds have to defy a 23-year losing streak in Christchurch today to turn the tables on the Canterbury Crusaders, a week after falling 28-15 to the powerful South Island-based team.
The rebuilding NSW Waratahs have never won a final away from home and are long odds to end that drought in Hamilton tomorrow against a Waikato Chiefs side who have won six of their past seven games against Australian opponents.
The ACT Brumbies, the top Australian side with a fourth-placed finish at the end of the regular season, might be best placed to survive the weekend when they take on the Wellington Hurricanes tomorrow.
However, they enter the clash on a losing streak since a 37-26 reality check by the Crusaders at Canberra Stadium.
Defeat would spell the end of an era for a Brumbies side who have set the benchmark in Australia for much of the past decade while failing to deliver a title.
Coach Dan McKellar and a string of Wallabies, including front-row forwards Scott Sio and Folau Faingaa, and fullback Tom Banks, are moving on at the end of the season and tomorrow is likely to be their last game in Canberra.
“If you go out there just thinking that emotion is going to win you the game, then you’ll leave disappointed,” McKellar told his players this week. “We’ve got to make sure that tactically and physically, we turn up in the right headspace and also execute well.”
The other quarter-final is an all-New Zealand affair, with the table-topping Auckland Blues facing the eighth-ranked Otago Highlanders, a repeat of last year’s decider in the one-off Super Rugby Trans-Tasman competition.
By any measure, Tony Brown’s Highlanders have had a forgettable season, compiling a 4-10 losing record.
“Some people may not think we deserve to be in the playoff,” Highlanders and All Blacks scrumhalf Aaron Smith wrote on Twitter. “We don’t make the rules. But will give the Blues everything we got.”
If the Wild finally break through and win their first playoff series in a decade, Minnesota’s top line likely will be the reason. They were all over the Golden Knights through the first two games of their NHL Western Conference quarter-finals series, which was 1-1 going back to Minnesota for Game 3 today. The Wild tied the series with a 5-2 win on Tuesday. Matt Boldy had three goals and an assist in the first two games, while Kirill Kaprizov produced two goals and three assists. Joel Eriksson Ek, who centers the line, has yet to get on the scoresheet. “I think the biggest
Noelvi Marte on Sunday had seven RBIs and hit his first career grand slam with a drive off infielder Jorge Mateo, while Austin Wynn had a career-high six RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds scored their most runs in 26 years in a 24-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Marte finished with five hits, including his eighth-inning homer off Mateo. Wynn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off catcher Gary Sanchez. Cincinnati scored its most runs since a 24-12 win against the Colorado Rockies on May 19, 1999, and finished with 25 hits. Baltimore allowed its most runs since a 30-3 loss to
From a commemorative jersey to a stadium in his name, Argentine soccer organizers are planning a slew of tributes to their late “Captain” Pope Francis, eulogized as the ultimate team player. Tributes to the Argentine pontiff, a lifelong lover of the game, who died on Monday at the age of 88, have been peppered with soccer metaphors in his homeland. “Francisco. What a player,” the Argentine Football Federation (AFA) said, describing the first pope from Latin America and the southern hemisphere as a generational talent who “never hogged the ball” and who showed the world “the importance of having an Argentine captain,
Arne Slot has denied that Darwin Nunez was dropped from Liverpool’s win against West Ham because of a training-ground row with a member of his coaching staff. The Liverpool head coach on Sunday last week said that Nunez was absent from the 2-1 victory at Anfield, having felt unwell during training the day before, although the striker sat behind the substitutes throughout the game. Speculation has been rife that the Uruguay international, whom Slot criticized for his work rate against Wolves and Aston Villa in February, was left out for disciplinary reasons. Asked on Friday to clarify the situation, Slot said: “He
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