Aisle be Back: Hurricanes v Brumbies (Qualifying Final)

TJ Clarke and the Hurricanes celebrate his maiden try last week. Photo: Mike Lewis Pictures.

• By Kevin McCarthy

It’s Super Rugby Pacific quarter-finals time. Hold on, no, that’s not right.

There would have to be four playoff matches in that case. And we only have three.

Okay, so it’s actually the playoff finals officially.

As a Hurricanes fan, your team finished fourth. Meaning when they play the Brumbies in Canberra tomorrow night, they can lose and still get a second crack in the semi-finals as the Lucky Loser.

No, hold on, that is possible, but not definitive. Because if either of the top seed Chiefs and second top seed Crusaders lose – it seems to be that the Hurricanes will then no longer have Lucky Loser status.

Instead, they’ll be effectively in a sudden death scenario – that is, lose and the season is over.

Now the scenario will be obvious to everyone by the time kick-off rolls around at 9.30 on a chilly Canberra Saturday evening – because the results of the other two games will be known.

And it could be that the game will be dead rubber, with both sides knowing they will progress through.

Yes, the six into three playoff setup is convoluted, and as many have pointed out, why not give the first and second seeds a week off while 3 through 6 play sudden death.

I’ve praised the system as at least better than the gerrymandered conference one from a few years ago to protect the presence of Australian sides.

But I’ll reserve further judgement until the games are played this weekend.

Clearly it is going to be a potential cause of great irritation for some, unless the results go by seedings. And surely given this regular season’s success, then fixing the finals setup will be top of the agenda for 2026.

In all probability the results will go by seeding. Hard to see the Chiefs choking even though the Blues managed to defibrillate their vital signs in the last few rounds.

Definitely hard to see the Reds overcoming the odds, amid probably sub-zero temperatures in Christchurch tonight.

At which point the Canes and Brumbies will know they if they go through to the semis, regardless of winning or losing.

Winning will still help – regarding seedings and confidence. Other than that, the competition seems set up to depower one of its three premier matches.

At least things should be clearer 48 hours from now.

+++++

Fantasy Super Rugby ended last week. I finished just outside the top 2000!

That pleased me, anyway.

But in my private league comp, I was about 200 plus points adrift of top spot.

That was pretty much the lead I coughed up in round 1. Meaning the next 15 rounds were pointless.

So, will I return next year? Of course I will.

+++++

The Hurricanes team to play the Brumbies in Canberra is:

1 Xavier Numia

2 Asafo Aumua (Co Captain)

3 Tyrel Lomax

4 Zach Gallagher

5 Caleb Delany

6 Devan Flanders

7 Du’Plessis Kirifi (Co Captain)

8 Peter Lakai

9 Cam Roigard

10 Brett Cameron

11 Fatafehi Fineanganofo

12 Peter Umaga-Jensen

13 Billy Proctor (Co Captain)

14 Bailyn Sullivan

15 Ruben Love

Impact

16. Raymond Tuputupu
17. Tevita Mafileo
18. Pasilio Tosi
19. Hugo Plummer
20. Brad Shields (Co Captain)
21. Ereatara Enari
22. Ngatungane Punivai
23. Callum Harkin