A season of mediocrity

The domestic rugby season came to an end last weekend with the national sevens tournament in Tauranga. Rugby writer Steve Hepburn looks back on a season which had highs and lows but perhaps too much middle ground.

It was the year of the average.

The not too great but then not too bad.

The odd nugget mixed with plenty of dirt.

One looks back at the 2019 season and it is one which failed to reach any great heights. To use the NCEA system, there were plenty of achieves, a few merits but not many excellences.

The Highlanders made the post-season but never really put on a compelling performance of any note.

The side limped into the playoffs and then went out rather meekly in the quarterfinals to the Crusaders. The team never achieved any momentum and again had issues winning games away from home. It was not helped by injury but the fairy-tale ending — given so many players were leaving — just did not happen.

With the depth of players it had, the side should have done better. But it was poor in maintaining pressure and rarely put a game to bed early.

The Crusaders ended up completing a hat-trick of titles and coach Scott Robertson then displayed his dancing moves — perhaps one of the reasons he did not get the All Black job.

One level down, Otago came away with its head held high but is once again stuck in the Championship division of the Mitre 10 Cup. There was drama early on as players headed to a new competition overseas to join the Asian Pacific Dragons in Singapore. A few went over but it was more about perception than reality.

Otago managed to comfortably make the semifinals and then played a ripping semifinal against Hawke’s Bay which it almost won but just went down in extra time.

It has some top-line backs who carved up, such as Jona Nareki, Vilimoni Koroi and Josh Ioane, while the forwards were solid and played above their weight.

But the Mitre 10 Cup competition is flawed. Sides are split into two divisions in which the top sides no longer have dominance over the lesser lights. Yet the best the lesser lights can do is win the Championship.

Otago did well to hang on to the Ranfurly Shield until the clinical Cantabrians came calling and rolled out a professional performance which was too much for Otago. Pulses did not exactly go crazy back in Christchurch when the shield arrived in town.

Southland grabbed a win but ended up last as Tasman and Bay of Plenty won the spoils.

The All Blacks did manage to hold on to the Bledisloe Cup with no third game because it was World Cup year.

They had a stinker in Perth but bounced back to win in Auckland. South Africa won the Rugby Championship which is always a bit of a lottery in World Cup year.

The World Cup. Simply the All Blacks did not win it so it was a downer. The side played well before the semifinal but against England was slow and stuttering. England had one of those days when it all turned to gold. South Africa just played the percentages and won it all, which is a worry for the game.

Sevens continued to grow and the standard has improved. The Black Ferns did well in the United States in the middle of the year and depth is encouraging. The real test for the side is in 2021, when it hosts the World Cup.