Hungry Ali. Hungry Crusaders.

In Australia, Burger King is called Hungry Jacks. Sometimes the little guy can triumph over the giant. David did it against Goliath, Britten built a motorcycle that beat the world´s leading factories and the Reds...

Well the Reds deserved to win. They won home advantage, they beat all the top super sides this year and they played an attractive brand of rugby throughout. The Crusaders did an incredible job to get to the final but it was one game too far on a crazy year and the Reds deserve the credit for not allowing them to achieve their Super dreams.

So now we come to the 3N and the naming of the 3N teams. I have to tip my hat off to Ali Williams. After another ankle injury, the skeptics wrote off his chances and I´m sure he had a few moments of self-doubt as well. At the start of the year, he did a stint in England with Nottingham to get himself back to Super rugby and a possible call up again for the ABs. When the team was named, he got his Blues buddy Mealamu to do the talking for him. It meant more to him than hearing his name for the first time read out as an AB.

It´s a feel good story but it´s not an isolated one. Zac Guilford has made it back into the squad. Brad Thorn overcame the odds to get a call up, Mealamu and Muliaina got back into the squad in 2010 and got back into rich form. Corey Jane and Maa Maa All Black can you pass the ball? (Yes sir, yes sir it´s one of the strengths to my game bro) can use these guys as inspiration. Knowing that you never give up and if you put in the hard work, the rewards can be there. I think it´s important to have these stories for the boys to be reminded of how special the Black jersey is and how much it means to everyone and not just to those who made the squad.

As for the Crusaders, their 100 000 km travelling odyssey didn´t have a fairytale ending. But I can´t help but feel that a little pain deep down in the gut for this side, which has a good deal of ABs, is not necessarily a bad thing. I feel for the players who deserved a happy ending but they lost to a side who were equally deserving of a place in the final and who were the better team on the day. Suddenly Australia has gone up in a lot of people´s opinions for capturing World Cup glory. Well they were general contenders all along. The Reds didn´t need to win a Super trophy for that to be the case.

But to me that´s a good thing that people now start talking up the Aussies. Not to make the ABs second favourites. They´re the number one side and are playing at home. However, the trophy isn´t awarded to teams on that basis and rightly so. You have to earn the right to put your name on that trophy and that´s what makes it so special. It´s nice to be reminded once and a while that you want to really want something to get it. And you have to make sure that another team who are just as deserving don´t take away what you want so badly.

So in Australia you have Hungry Jacks. In New Zealand now I hope they open up a chain of Hungry All Blacks across the country. Super rugby isn´t test rugby (the Bulls won last year´s Super trophy and the Boks got the wooden spoon) but it´s a nice reminder that you don´t get your name on the trophy until you win the last game.

I was wonder when the Hungry Jacks reference would make sense.