THE Waikato Chiefs were deserving winners of this year's Super Rugby title, but the tournament got the one-sided final it deserved due to its lopsided structure.
The Sharks' management and players refused to use the exhaustive travel factor as an excuse for the 37-6 drubbing because they had no choice but to stomach it.
However, the ridiculous schedule was precisely the reason the match was so ill-balanced that it was boring for anyone but a Chiefs fan.
Where was the joy in watching celebrated Springbok players virtually sleep-walking through what was supposed to be one of the biggest games of their careers?
Travelling a total of nearly 35000km in 16 days across multiple time zones made the outcome of the match a foregone conclusion.
If Super Rugby wants its so-called "final" to resemble that mess every year, then the sooner SA finds an alternative competition the better.
A respected English rugby scribe was asked whether he would be watching the final and he replied that if it was held in his own back yard, he would draw the curtains.
That riled southern hemisphere observers but the writer was spot on. A final should be a contest in circumstances that are as close to balanced as possible.
"When you sacrifice a lot of your preparation for recovery this can happen," Sharks coach John Plumtree said diplomatically. "It was a bridge too far for us. It would be naïve to say the travel didn't take its toll but we expected more from ourselves. They (Sanzar) need to look at it (the competition format)."
The only answer, given the constraints, is to do away with one of the byes during the regular season and place an extra week between the semifinal and the final. That way the team that needs to travel will have an extra seven days to acclimatise.
Super Rugby final didn't spark
THE Waikato Chiefs were deserving winners of this year's Super Rugby title, but the tournament got the one-sided final it deserved due to its lopsided structure.
The Sharks' management and players refused to use the exhaustive travel factor as an excuse for the 37-6 drubbing because they had no choice but to stomach it.
However, the ridiculous schedule was precisely the reason the match was so ill-balanced that it was boring for anyone but a Chiefs fan.
Where was the joy in watching celebrated Springbok players virtually sleep-walking through what was supposed to be one of the biggest games of their careers?
Travelling a total of nearly 35000km in 16 days across multiple time zones made the outcome of the match a foregone conclusion.
If Super Rugby wants its so-called "final" to resemble that mess every year, then the sooner SA finds an alternative competition the better.
A respected English rugby scribe was asked whether he would be watching the final and he replied that if it was held in his own back yard, he would draw the curtains.
That riled southern hemisphere observers but the writer was spot on. A final should be a contest in circumstances that are as close to balanced as possible.
"When you sacrifice a lot of your preparation for recovery this can happen," Sharks coach John Plumtree said diplomatically. "It was a bridge too far for us. It would be naïve to say the travel didn't take its toll but we expected more from ourselves. They (Sanzar) need to look at it (the competition format)."
The only answer, given the constraints, is to do away with one of the byes during the regular season and place an extra week between the semifinal and the final. That way the team that needs to travel will have an extra seven days to acclimatise.
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