WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — For the third season in a row, the ACT Brumbies will carry Australian hopes into the Super Rugby Pacific semifinals.
They face the Auckland-based Blues at Eden Park on Friday while the Wellington-based Hurricanes will play the Hamilton-based Chiefs in an all-New Zealand semifinal on Saturday.
The Brumbies have traveled to New Zealand for the semifinals in each of the last two years, losing to the Blues 20-19 at Eden Park in 2022 and to the Chiefs, 19-6, in Hamilton last year.
With each of those losses, the Brumbies have added to the poor record of Australian teams who haven’t won a playoff match in New Zealand in 17 attempts. This year they will face a Blues team in top form, having lost only twice in 13 matches, boasting the best defensive record and points differential in the tournament.
New head coach Vern Cotter has added an element to the Blues’ play that has been missing for some time: toughness, which is most clearly shown in their defensive intensity and their no-frills style. The Blues are as happy to score tries from lineout drives and phase play as they are from using their All Black wingers Caleb Clarke and Mark Telea.
There is still a lackadaisical element and the Blues do tend to drift out of the game at times, as they did at the start of the second half in last weekend’s quarterfinal against the Fijian Drua. They don’t always finish well.
They will be hard hit on Friday by the absence of captain Patrick Tuipulotu who suffered a knee injury last weekend and they are likely to be without All Blacks’ backrower Akira Ioane, who also has an injury and is in his last season with the Blues before moving to Japan.
The Brumbies came into the semifinals through the closest of the four quarterfinals in which they beat the Dunedin-based Highlanders 32-16 in Canberra. They were under pressure throughout the first half and trailed 16-15 nearing halftime. But tries on either side of the break gave them a lead which they defended by keeping the Highlanders scoreless in the second half.
A repeat of that performance would not be enough to beat the Blues. They need to find another gear, or a twist to their fairly measured gameplan that takes the Blues by surprise.
“The experience of the last two years is going to be massive for us,” Brumbies captain Allan Alaalatoa said. “Last year and the year before is probably the first time the boys have been over to New Zealand and experienced what it’s like to play at Eden Park as well.
“So we’re going to lean on those experiences from the boys who were there.”
The clash between the Hurricanes and Chiefs in Wellington looks a close one, closer than their respective first and fourth seedings.
The Chiefs scored 28 points in the first 23 minutes of their quarterfinal against the Queensland Reds while the Hurricanes took 25 minutes to score their first points against the Melbourne Rebels. A repeat of those starts could be lethal for the Hurricanes.
The Chiefs have reached the semifinals in each of the last two years and the final last year in which they lost narrowly to the Crusaders. That’s another advantage over the Hurricanes who lost to the Brumbies in the quarterfinals in 2022 and 2023.
The Hurricanes have been transformed this season under first-season head coach Clark Laidlaw, a former sevens coach who has given full license to their attacking style. They have made the pace in the competition through most of the season, finishing the regular season atop the table.
They will have to be faultless again on Saturday to advance to their first final since 2016. The Hurricanes beat the Chiefs twice during the regular season and also will take some confidence from those matches.
“The Hurricanes have set the pace in this year’s competition, have earned the right to get the home advantage through the finals and will be formidable opposition again in front of a large home crowd,” Cheifs coach Clayton McMillan said. “They are a well-balanced team, riding high on confidence. They will be a tough nut to crack as we have already experienced twice this year.”
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