Off Pitch – How the Teams Have Been Spending the Long Pre-Season

Try as hard as you like, you can’t spend your whole life playing rugby. So what do teams get up to when they’re not out on the paddock? Calum Henderson investigates the pre-season activities of all 18 Super Rugby franchises.

Australasian Group

New Zealand’s Super Rugby franchises have been busy this pre-season – mostly doing their own thing, but also coming together for an afternoon of dancing with Parris Goebel and the ReQuest dance crew for their #SuperBANGBANG season promo video.

The Blues look to be having a ball of a pre-season under new coach Tana Umaga, the highlight of which has probably been a trip to the Hira Bhana potato farm, where they were treated to a big barbecue and each received a season’s supply of potatoes.

The Chiefs have taken to the road for a sort of epic Kerouacian road trip around the Waikato and Bay of Plenty – a training in Morrinsville, a meet-and-greet in Te Aroha – really making the most of the fine summer weather. The Hurricanes were understandably excited to meet a miniature horse, while down in Christchurch the Crusaders have been chopping firewood in preparation for the long South Island winter.

In stark contrast, the Highlanders now travel exclusively by helicopter ever since they became the new Super Rugby champions.

Across the Tasman, the Waratahs have been holding a number of community engagement events – this Instagram appears to show the exact moment a young fan punched hooker Tatafu Polota-Nau square in the chops. In Melbourne, the Rebels have been encouraging fans to #EatLikeaRebel, which seems to mostly involve scoffing ribs at TGI Fridays. Who is the Rebels dietician this season?

In much-needed Super Rugby pet news, the Brumbies are this season offering Pet Memberships in what feels like a groundbreaking moment for pets in sport. Meanwhile the Reds have been employing a dog to carry their kicking tee – please let this carry over into the regular season.

Spare a thought for the Force, though, who can’t seem to find a scrum machine anywhere in Perth, and have resorted to practicing on a Ford Transit.

African Group

There seems to be a burgeoning pre-season tradition amongst the South African Super Rugby teams involving facing their regional cricketing counterparts in a T20 match. The Sharks played the Sunfoil Dolphins at Kingsmead in Durban – a battle of two teams with absolutely terrifying mascots.

The Dolphins won that match by 31 runs, but over in Cape Town the Stormers got up for a 2-wicket win over a Cape Cobras XI which included all-time weird-bowling-action legend Paul Adams. Could the Stormers’ unconventional pre-season strategy of working full-time jobs as couriers be about to pay off?

Elsewhere in the Republic, the Bulls have made their own wine, while the Lions were blessed by a visit by golf legend Ernie Els.

The preparations of the brand new Southern Kings franchise appears to be being kept strictly top secret, but the Cheetahs look set to debut Super Rugby’s first bionic athlete.

That leaves the two most intriguing additions to the expanded competition – Japan’s HITO-Communications Sunwolves and Los Jaguares of Argentina. The Sunwolves will surely be a popular second team this year, and while the Chichibunomiya pitch might currently resemble a grand scale Zen garden, their wonderful Twitter and Facebook accounts are already setting a new high benchmark for Super Rugby social media.

Los Jaguares, meanwhile, look like the very definition of a dark horse – tweeting all in Spanish, and posting mostly photos showing how much meat they’re eating.