No trans-Tasman duels in Super Rugby since March 2020 had left all keen rugby fans with a longing for a resumption that grew deeper and deeper.
The same can be said for the players and 10 head coaches who wanted to test themselves outside their own backyard.
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It was great to welcome SuperRugby Trans-Tasman last Friday and Saturday and be excited that four bumper weekends and a final still lie ahead.
A 0-5 slate for the Aussie sides was unsurprising in Round One, not through lack of hope or quality but the way the draw rolled out.
Having Australia’s two best sides go on the road for matches in the first round just six and seven days after a big final at Suncorp Stadium just didn’t augur well.
The depleted Queensland Reds came unstuck 40-19 against the Highlanders. The ACT Brumbies were super impressive in the way they came back against the champion Crusaders in Christchurch.
The Melbourne Rebels were well off the pace 50-3 against the Blues in Melbourne, the NSW Waratahs showed improvement in certain areas in the crazy try-fest against the Hurricanes at the SCG and the Western Force showed terrific fight again to all but upset the Chiefs in Perth.
So what did we learn and what warmed the heart from Round One of Super Rugby Trans-Tasman?
1 FORCE REVIVAL
The Western Force weren’t even in Super Rugby to start last season so the prospect of even playing a Kiwi side again was 1000-1.
Now, they are reviewing a 20-19 nailbiter they would have pinched from the Chiefs on the bell if flyhalf Domingo Miotti had converted his own try.
You have to process the full context of the game. The Chiefs and ringmaster Damian McKenzie started the game at such a tempo of running, passing and gap-finding that you feared a big score.
The Force got their bearings against an unfamiliar style and scrapped back from 20-7 down.
Backrower Brynard Stander and halfback Tomas Cubelli really lead this side as did replacement halfback Ian Prior with that lovely over-the-top cut-out ball to put Richard Kahui over.
Great credit to the Force but they have to pinch Friday night’s clash against the Highlanders at HBF Park before three games in New Zealand.
2 WHAT WE MISSED ABOUT THE KIWIS
We missed stars like Crusaders flyhalf Richie Mo’unga dangling a ball on the end of his right hand and then making a heavy step inside for a solo try against the Brumbies. We missed Damian McKenzie’s gliding, stepping, elusive brilliance and athletic forwards handling the ball like backs.
We also missed those Kiwi hairdos. We’ve seen McKenzie’s bouncy full-bodied mullet before but only on that Pooch Perfect dog grooming show on TV that’s hosted by Rebel Wilson.
Big Blues backrower Hoskins Sotutu is chasing a bit of that Cadbury sponsorship money with that Top Deck hairstyle of his.
Time moves quickly in rugby. It was fascinating watching some of the Kiwi youngsters now hitting top stride.
Chiefs centre Alex Nankivell and athletic lock Tupou Vaa’i were two. Crusaders’ try-scoring backrower Ethan Blackadder was another.
Watching “The Bus” score two tries against the Waratahs was a flashback because it was great to see Julian Savea back in harness at 30 for the Hurricanes.
Most of all, the best and most scintillating ball-in-hand rugby from the Kiwis was rivetting.
3 AUSSIE EYE-CATCHERS
Brumbies fullback Tom Banks and Waratahs finisher Jack Maddocks scored two of the best tries of the round.
Banks dashed over from more than 60m out with pace, decisiveness, a swerve and the determination to blast through three defenders.
Maddocks finished the 17-try orgy at the SCG with a brilliant crossing after a Will Harrison chip-and-regather igniting things back in the Waratahs’ quarter.
That Angus Bell try off a well-worked lineout play was a beauty too in the 64-48 clash. It’s a shame the Waratahs’ crooked backline defence is still so disconnected.
Powerful Brumbies No.8 Rob Valetini might well have been the Australian player of the round for the authority of his ball-carting, his late try and his workrate.
Rebels winger Marika Koroibete hasn’t scored a try this season but he’s no one-trick pony. His clattering hit to fell Blues prop Nepo Laulala was a beauty in his team’s fadeout.
4 SCRUM DRAMAS
The only way scrummaging warmed the heart was knowing it will just have to be better in Round Two.
Collapses and re-sets were painful to watch.
Australian and Kiwi techniques are different enough that referees had a tough time getting them square, stable and staying up.
The scrum mess ruined the opening 20 minutes to the Crusaders-Brumbies game which finished as a gripping contest, 31-29.
5 MORE VUNIVALU
This trans-Tasman competition will be the making of Reds winger Suliasi Vunivalu.
His leap for a high cross-kick to score the first of his two tries against the Highlanders was vintage Israel Folau.
Making split-second reads in defence and attack against the high-tempo Kiwi sides will stress test everything he has learned at training.
The bottomline is the Wallabies will have a wing weapon when he’s off his L plates. Just don't rush him too soon.
Right now, his progression is no different to Tom Wright, another winger who came back to rugby from the NRL. Wright showed real promise in 2019, was a Wallaby in Year Two and is playing some brilliant all-round rugby in 2021 now everything is instinctive.
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