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“Channel 50 or 54?”: Hurricanes and Warriors both set to bring Friday night entertainment
Ian Smith • April 19th, 2024 11:20 am
Those Hurricanes are flying - unbeaten, top of the table, and the team to watch in the Super Rugby Pacific competition at 7.05pm tonight out of Suva. It'll be tough, rugged, energy-sapping stuff against the Fijian Drua.
But, where will your eyes be for the second half of that match? Because at 8pm, the One NZ Warriors kick off against the Dragons.
In past year's this would be an absolute no-brainer - stay with the Canes all day, all night. But what about now?
I guess these days they can monitor a switchover rate at Sky Sport? It would be an incredibly interesting figure to know.
You could argue until the cows come home, and go out again, over the merits of each code - hell, we do it every day. NRL versus Super Rugby: flow, time in play, entertainment value, ease of understanding etc.
What there's no point arguing in though is the pulling power of the 'Wahs' these days - sell out, after sell out, after sell out.
Never before has there been more interest in the players than with the Warriors. There's more familiarity: SJ, RTS, captain Tohu, DWZ, CNK, CHT, AFB, and soon to be, JFH. More hypens than you can poke a stick at!
We know them, we see their faces. It feels like we'd be on a first name basis with the Warriors if we bumped into them in the supermarket.
But could we name the Hurricanes in the same manner? Would we recognise them in aisle seven picking out their pasta? TJ and Jordie, absolutely, But the rest, I'd be battling to be honest.
The Hurricanes are top of the table, the Canes are rugby. The Warriors sit only at seven on the NRL ladder currently.
The NRL have full faith in their product, one which they quite cleverly market from Thursday night to Sunday night. And they'll throw it up against anything, even an All Blacks vs Wallabies Test match, which presents an interesting conundrum, doesn't it?
The Bledisloe Cup up against the Warriors in a key playoff match - where do the feet go? Where do the eyes go?
Up until now, as I said, a no-brainer. Wash your mouth out for such a stupid suggestion.
For he or she in charge of the TV remote at home, which is it? Channel 50 or 54?
Bob Dylan is a legend, a great songwriter, and maybe he was a visionary when he wrote these lyrics to one of his most famous songs back in 1964:
"The line it is drawn, the curse it is cast. The slow one now, will later be fast. As the present now, will later be past. The order is rapidly fadin' and the first one now, will later be last, for the times they are a-changin'."
Listen to Jim Kayes' Round 9 preview of Super Rugby Pacific on SENZ Mornings below:
