By Nick Mulvenney
SYDNEY (Reuters) – The Queensland Reds are best placed of the teams yet to secure a playoff spot heading into the final round of Super Rugby Pacific but they will need to negotiate one of the toughest trips in the competition to be sure of reaching the quarter-finals.
With the top six in the standings locked in, the Reds and Drua are two of five teams battling it out for the last two playoff spots this weekend along with the Melbourne Rebels, Otago Highlanders and Western Force.
Although the Drua are 10th in standings, they have lost only one of five matches played on Fijian soil this season with the Canterbury Crusaders and Wellington Hurricanes among their victims.
World Cup winner Brad Thorn takes charge of the seventh-placed Reds for the final time in the heat and humidity of Suva’s HFC Bank Stadium on Saturday and said his players know they face a stern test.
“It’s do or die,” Thorn told reporters on Thursday. “There’s no kidding yourself, if you fall short here, you are most likely not going through.
“The Drua are dangerous and there’s going to be a good crowd. It’s going to be one hell of a contest.”
The competition’s generous format means all but one of the 12 teams go into this weekend with quarter-finals hopes alive and the calculators might need to come out to decide the final playoff line-up.
The Waikato Chiefs are already assured of top spot and home advantage however long they last in the playoffs ahead of their trip to face Western Force on Saturday, and the Crusaders have all but locked up second place.
To overhaul the reigning champions, the third-placed Auckland Blues would need to thrash the Highlanders at Eden Park and hope a weakened Crusaders side are beaten at the Wellington Hurricanes without earning a losing bonus point.
The Hurricanes could still leapfrog the ACT Brumbies and make it a top-four sweep for New Zealand but only if the best of the Australian teams stumble against the Rebels in Canberra on Friday night.
On form, the ninth-placed Western Force would have little hope of bouncing back from a heavy loss to the Rebels last week and upsetting the Chiefs but they do have the confidence in knowing they are unbeaten in Perth this season.
Playing in the final match of the weekend means they will also know exactly what they need to do to get into the top eight against a Chiefs side missing several key players being rested for the playoffs.
A victory for the Force would be only a sixth for Australian teams against New Zealand opposition this season and would also slightly redress an imbalance that threatens the long-term future of the competition.
Wallabies flanker Michael Hooper will captain sixth-placed New South Wales Waratahs on Saturday against bottom side Moana Pasifika in his last match in Sydney for a team he led to the 2014 title.
Unless the eighth-placed Highlanders beat the Blues, All Blacks scrumhalf Aaron Smith’s 185th Super Rugby match — a career tally bettered only by Wyatt Crockett (202) — is likely to be his last.
A pectoral injury has denied Hurricanes winger Julian Savea a chance to move past Israel Folau as the outright top try scorer in the competition’s history, in this season at least.
(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney, editing by Peter Rutherford)
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