The oft-quoted phrase ‘From the sublime to the ridiculous’ could be applied (albeit in reverse order) to the fortunes of both Auckland’s rugby codes this weekend.
A 44,000-strong crowd, which on first-hand observation, was made up of at least 40 per cent of Chiefs fans, braved a biblical downpour that saturated the garden of Eden but hardly impacted the Grand Final that produced six tries.
Playing on one leg, talismanic captain Patrick Tuipulotu and his Blues crew defied the naysayers to win their first Super title since 2003. They emphatically thumped a Chiefs side that looked a shadow of the team that highjacked the Hurricanes a week earlier.
The Blues’ impressive tight five conducted raid after raid on a shell-shocked Chiefs outfit that just couldn’t get themselves into the game. Winger Caleb Clarke was the benefactor of the fatties’ hard work collecting three tries, joined on the scoresheet by departing veteran Akira Ioane.
Despite some well-lubricated Waikato supporters seeing it fit to boo Tuipulotu as he shuffled off after an impressive 57 minutes, the crowd was mainly in awe of a complete performance that restored pride to a region that had drifted out of Super Rugby’s collective consciousness over the past two decades.
However, the term ‘complete performance’ could not be applied to the gutless display by the Warriors who were thrashed at the hands of cellar-dwellers the Gold Coast Titans.
In baseball, a mercy rule applies that a game can be ended early when one side has established insurmountable dominance. The Warriors who endured a 66-6 shellacking would have activated the rule.
The NRL differs from its Rugby cousin in that there is parity between club’s playing rosters and on any given day, a low-ranked team could topple a premiership leader.
Just a few weeks ago, a Warriors side ravaged by injury took down the reigning premiers with learned observers noting a positional switch to halfback for Te Maire Martin was the genesis for the remarkable feat.
However, after re-installing veteran Shaun Johnson to the playmaker role they have looked tedious and trite.
Having said that, the hammering on the Gold Coast could just maybe be the spark needed to reinvigorate Johnson’s season, or a further sign that the end is nigh for a club great.
The next few weeks will be interesting.
