WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — The Christchurch-based Crusaders have won seven Super Rugby titles in the past seven years, but their absence will be the main focus in this year’s playoffs.
The Crusaders’ final attempt to reach the quarterfinals ended in failure after they were eliminated in a tightly fought battle for a spot in the top eight on the final weekend of the regular season.
The Crusaders briefly moved up to eighth in the table with a home win over Moana Pasifika on Friday but dropped to ninth after Fiji’s Drua beat the Melbourne Rebels in Lautoka in the first of their four matches on Saturday.
The result meant that both Drua and the Rebels advanced to the playoffs – Drua for the second consecutive year and the Rebels for the first time in their 14-year history, in what will be the final year of Super Rugby.
Rugby Australia announced on Thursday, just before the Rebels departed for Fiji, that the Melbourne team’s Super Rugby licence will not be renewed next year due to financial concerns, meaning the Rebels will disband at the end of the playoffs.
It was one of many dark moments from the weekend round. With the Crusaders gone, the careers of a number of great players came to an end. All Blacks props Joe Moody and Owen Franks and centre Ryan Crotty are all retiring at the end of this season, all former World Cup winners.
Franks, 36, will move to Japan to become Japan’s national team forwards coach under Australian head coach Eddie Jones, while Moody, 35, is likely to return to farming if he is not convinced to stay with the Crusaders for another season. Crotty’s plans are unclear.
“I feel like I still have enough life left in my body to get through another season of football,” Moody said before Friday’s game, “but if it doesn’t happen, I’ll probably be in the backyard somewhere playing with cows or sitting on a tractor.”
Moana Pasifika has also said goodbye to some of the players who played key roles in its three years in Super Rugby. Former Wallabies prop Sekope Kepu and fly-half Christian Lealiifano are also retiring from Super Rugby. Kepu won a Super Rugby title with the New South Wales Waratahs and is expected to continue playing at state level in New Zealand.
The Crusaders organisation announced a review of the 2024 season as soon as the final whistle blew in Lautoka, ending the team’s chances of making the playoffs.
“Regardless of the result or ranking, we are proud of our team, the club and the enormous amount of work that has gone into across the organisation to deliver this season,” chief executive Colin Mainsbridge said.
“Many results did not go our way and at times our performance on the field was not at the level we expected of ourselves. Small margins determine results and positions and we lost six games by less than seven points.”
The Wellington-based Hurricanes finished the season in first place after winning a bonus point in their previous regular season match against the Dunedin-based Highlanders. The Hurricanes and the Auckland-based Blues went into the final round of the regular season with 51 points each, but the Hamilton Chiefs scored a try in the final minutes of the match to deny the Blues a bonus point, causing them to miss out on the top spot.
The Blues were disappointed to miss out on top spot and home-field advantage throughout the play-offs, but head coach Vern Cotter looked on the bright side.
“If we’d been given that score at the start of the season we would have picked it over the Chiefs,” Cotter said. “The danger of finishing first is that all of a sudden your feet leave the ground.
“We know we have a lot of work to do. It wasn’t a perfect performance.”
The rankings and quarter-final pairings have been confirmed, with the Hurricanes in first place, Blues in second, ACT Brumbies in third, Chiefs in fourth, Queensland Reds in fifth, Highlanders in sixth, Dollar in seventh and Rebels in eighth.
On Friday the Chiefs take on the Reds in Hamilton and the Hurricanes take on the Rebels in Wellington, while on Saturday the Blues take on Dollar in Auckland and the Brumbies take on the Highlanders in Canberra.
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