Johannesburg - The Stormers and Lions are still the flag-bearers for South Africa in Super Rugby despite losing to overseas opposition at the weekend.
And with the conference system dictating that teams from the two African groups are guaranteed to host play-off matches, the Stormers and Lions are sitting pretty at the top of Africa Conference 1 and 2 respectively.
Both teams have won six and lost three games so far, but they are ahead of the Bulls and Sharks.
The Chiefs are runaway leaders in the New Zealand conference on 37 points, but the anomaly in Super Rugby is that the “wildcard” teams on the overall log – the Crusaders and Hurricanes – both have more points than the conference leaders from Australia and the two in Africa.
The Crusaders are on 32 and Hurricanes on 31, more than the Stormers (29), Lions (27) and Rebels (23), who head up the Australian conference.
But the rules state that only the conference leaders can host quarter-final play-off games, which is one of the real problems with the tournament as it isn’t determined on a strength-versus-strength basis.
So, if the knock-out draw had to be decided on the current logs, then the Chiefs would face the Highlanders in Hamilton, the Stormers and Bulls would play at Newlands, the Hurricanes will travel to Johannesburg to take on the Lions and the Rebels would come up against the Crusaders in Melbourne.
The dominance of the New Zealand teams would see four out of their five teams in the play-offs, with three from South Africa and one from Australia.
The Kiwi sides’ supremacy shines through when dissecting Super Rugby’s leading lights in various categories. The Chiefs top the try-scoring list with 43, followed by the Hurricanes on 32, who are joint-second with the Cheetahs.
Exciting Chiefs fullback Damian McKenzie has scored the most points with 120, 11 ahead of Lions flyhalf Elton Jantjies, while McKenzie has claimed the most tries as well with seven.
Like Jantjies, another South African is in second place among the try-scorers in Cheetahs wing Sergeal Petersen with six.
But the picture can look very different on the log after this weekend’s round of fixtures, as both the Stormers and Lions are on byes.
The Bulls have quietly gone about their business this season in losing just one game, with one draw and six victories. They have a game in hand on the Stormers, and will be full of confidence after destroying the Force 42-20 in Perth last week.
Nollis Marais’ team trail the Stormers by a single point, but will face one of their biggest tests this season when they clash with the Brumbies in Canberra on Friday.
The Brumbies’ season has gone a bit pear-shaped after an impressive start, and they would want to get back on to the winning trail after losing 23-10 to the Highlanders last week.
The Sharks came through an arduous three-match tour of New Zealand with a reasonable six log points, and narrowly went down 24-22 to the Chiefs in New Plymouth last week.
They will be out to make up some ground on the Lions in their conference, but they will have to find a way to stop the rampant Hurricanes, who thrashed the Lions 50-17 at Ellis Park at the weekend.
If the conference phase ended over the weekend, the play-offs match-ups would be:
Chiefs host Highlanders at Waikato Stadium, Hamilton
Stormers host Bulls at Newlands, Cape Town
Lions host Hurricanes at Ellis Park, Johannesburg
Rebels host Crusaders at AAMI Park, Melbourne
Leading try scoring Super Rugby teams:
1 Chiefs 43 tries
2 Hurricanes 32
3 Cheetahs 32
4 Lions 30
5 Crusaders 30
6 Brumbies 25
7 HIghlanders 24
8 Bulls 24
9 Waratahs 22
10 Stormers 22
Leading Super Rugby point scorers:
1 Damian McKenzie (Chiefs) 120 points
2 Elton Jantjies (Lions) 109
3 Beauden Barrett (Hurricanes) 100
4 Ihaia West (Blues) 92
5 Richie Mo’unga (Crusaders) 82
6 Tusi Pisi (Sunwolves) 78
7 Lima Sopoaga (HIghlanders) 78
8 Christian Lealiifano (Brumbies) 76
9 Joe Pietersen (Sharks) 72
10 Niel Marais (Cheetahs) 68
Leading Super Rugby try scorers
1 Damian McKenzie (Chiefs) 7
2 Sergeal Petersen (Cheetahs) 6
3 TJ Perenara (Hurricanes) 5
4 Joseph Tomane (Brumbies) 5
5 James Lowe (Chiefs) 5
6 Israel Folau (Waratahs) 5
7 Charlie Ngatai (Chiefs) 5
8 Beauden Barrett (Hurricanes) 5
9 Akihito Yamada (Sunwolves) 5
10 Jamba Ulengo (Bulls) 4
African News Agency