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The five best performers from the final round of Super Rugby Aotearoa
By Alex McLeod
COVID-19 is back in New Zealand, the Blues and Crusaders weren't allowed to play their final match of the campaign and crowds weren't allowed to attend the one game that did get the green light to go ahead this weekend.
That still didn't stop Super Rugby Aotearoa going out with a bang as the Highlanders and Hurricanes played out a entertaining, high-octane battle in an empty Forsyth Barr Stadium on Saturday.
In proved to be the final match of a generally exceptional 10-week competition, the Highlanders were spurred on by co-captains Aaron Smith and Ash Dixon's 150th and 100th respective Super Rugby appearances to churn out a 38-21 victory.
Even without any fans in the stands, both sides put out a compelling display of running rugby, a fitting sign-off from the competition given how the five-team tournament has played out since it kicked off in June.
With that in mind, here are the five best performers in the final round of Super Rugby Aotearoa.
Aaron Smith (Highlanders)
If there is anything to take away from the Highlanders' Super Rugby Aotearoa campaign, it's that Aaron Smith remains one of the best halfbacks on the planet, if not the best of them all.
Some may say that title belongs to Springboks star Faf de Klerk, but it would be nigh on impossible to find any other halfback in the world who has performed at such a consistently high level for such a prolonged period of time.
Ever since he debuted for the Highlanders back in 2011, Smith's sublime standards have rarely dipped, and Saturday's clash was further evidence of that in what's been a sensational season in the Kiwi domestic league.
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Borthwick has obviously earned the right to expect people to look elsewhere when the sort of personal problems likely at the heart of Jones' departure occur but it's hard to believe he's, if not entirely to blame, at least most of the problem.
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Go to commentsBM My rugby fanaticism journey began as a youngster waking up in the early hours of the morning with a cup of coffee to watch the Boks play the ABs on that 1981 rebel tour, where we lost the last game in the dying seconds to a penalty, and ended up losing the series 2-1. Danie Gerber, Naas Botha, Ray Mordt, and DuPlessis, to name a few; what a team! I believe we could've won another World Cup with those boys playing in their prime.
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