Super Rugby Pacific semi-finals: What we learned

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The Blues and Chiefs pulled out some of their very best rugby to book themselves into the Super Rugby Pacific final, but that’s not all there is to talk about. Both also ushered in some compelling All Black storylines, key match-ups to analyse this week, as well as the prospect of a sold-out Eden Park.

Semi-final recaps:

Blues 34 – 20 Brumbies

Chiefs 30 – 19 Hurricanes

Here’s the key talking points from the two games.

Fast starts

The Blues scored within two minutes, the Chiefs within three. Neither stopped there as they both followed it up with another soon after, which meant they could put an arm’s length between themselves and the opposition before the Brumbies and Hurricanes had even touched the ball.

Injuries

The Chiefs are staring down the barrel of a crisis at hooker, because while you can end a game with uncontested scrums, you can’t start one like that. Tyrone Thompson may well be starting after injuries to Samisoni Taukei’aho and Bradley Slater, which is a massive step up since he’ll likely have to go the majority of the game. Meanwhile, Dalton Papali’i failed a HIA but was then allowed to take another one post-match, which feels a little odd.

Set piece

The Blues dominated theirs, the Chiefs had to battle against a competitive Hurricanes lineout and were forced into the aforementioned uncontested scrums. That’s going to be a key battleground in the final, ironically something the Blues found out the hard way last time they made one when the Crusaders methodically dismembered their lineout.

DMac v Plummer

It looks almost certain the Damian McKenzie will be the starting All Black first five, and after last night’s display it’s hard to argue that. He faces a match up against the more structured Harry Plummer, who has also been key to the Blues’ success lately due to his decision-making ability and goal kicking.

Reffing misadventures

Two New Zealand teams in the final means hopefully we’ll have a New Zealand ref, or at least a local protocol when the final takes place. One of the key reasons why Super Rugby Pacific has been so watchable this year has been the TMO only chiming in when absolutely needed, but that all went out the window at Sky Stadium when Australian officials Angus Gardner and Brett Cronin strangely went back to having long, boring chats over every marginal tackle.

Loose forward depth

Wallace Sititi was probably being looked at as a long-term project by the new All Black coaching set up, but showed he is fully capable of making the step up right now if needed. Especially considering the players he was up against are very much in the conversation too, Brayden Iose and Peter Lakai bowed out on their Canes seasons with big games. The good news for Sititi? He’ll have to do it all again on Saturday night against Dalton Papali’i, Akira Ioane and potential competition MVP Hoskins Sotutu.

Coaches

The funny thing about supposedly ‘Stern’ Vern Cotter is just that: he’s pretty funny. After the game on Friday he said choosing between the Chiefs and Hurricanes as a final opponent was like “the plague and cholera”, as well as admitting that he takes his job seriously but not himself. Meanwhile Clayton McMillan can’t enjoy the ‘under the radar’ tag now that his side is involved in the only game this week.

Home ground advantage

A fortnight ago Eden Park bosses were cursing the Chiefs for potentially costing the Blues home ground advantage with a late try in their last round robin game. Now, they’ll likely be singing their praises. The Chiefs’ semi-final win moves the action back to the country’s largest stadium, with a certain full house for the final and plenty of Chiefs fans making the trip up State Highway 1. There is one thing they should consider, though: not only have the Blues won all their games at home this year, the average margin of victory has been 26 points.

What Hamiltonians think

RNZ asked people on the streets of Hamilton what they thought of the Chiefs’ performance against the Hurricanes, and how they will fare against the Blues.