The dreary brand of rugby with seemingly endless kicking away of possession and the “pick and drive” becoming an art form meant fans got little entertainment.

The leading point scorer, Kurtley Beale, notched up 102 points for the team placed second on the ladder but was well behind last years 156 points from Peter Hewat when the team finished second last. In scoring 33 tries the Tahs were 8th on the try scoring ladder behind even the Cheetahs with 34 tries but 13th on the ladder.

The defensive record of the Tahs was good with 21 tries against and were thus in equal second for defence behind the Crusaders with the Stormers.

The most remarkable statistic and the most telling was the fact that with just 255 points for (and 12th) and 186 against (2nd) they notched up nine wins to give them second place.

This shows that in the modern day defence can win matches and the lack of attack in the Waratahs play did not detract from them improving their position markedly from the previous year.

This is not a good omen for the future of rugby in Australia in the face of mounting publicity and growing interest in soccer, rugby league and the highly entertaining Australian Rules football.

The fans want action, entertaining play and that means tries being scored.

Even though the South African teams did not perform well in the final showdown the brand of rugby played, especially at home had the crowds flocking in.

The last three Stormers games at Newlands was testament to this with near capacity crowds at the famous stadium for the final three matches against the Brumbies, Waratahs and Lions.

The Queensland Reds showed promise to finish 12th on the ladder while the Force and Brumbies disappointingly languished in the bottom half of the table at 8th and 9th position respectively.

If there was to be a shining light in the Australian teams campaigns it was the emerging stars still in (or just out of) their teenage years that will be looked on to build for the future and particularly 2011 RWC under coach Robbie Deans. How lucky are the Wallabies to have snared Deans?

It would have seemed a logical progression for him to be the All Blacks coach after the disaster of the RWC 2007 for the men in black.

Players like Kurtley Beale, Lachie Turner, Rob Horn, David Pocock, James O’Connor, Christian Leiliifano and Quade Cooper will lead the charge and although only Turner is in the first up Wallaby squad the others are busy with the Australian under 20 team competing in the world championships in Wales. They can be expected to be included in lineups later in the year.

The Brumbies bid coach Laurie Fisher a sad farewell in a season that would rate as their worst in Super rugby. The final game against the Western Force when they squandered a 22 point lead to go down 22-29 is one they would all like to forget.

There were individual standouts and this showed in George Smith being voted by his peers as the player of the tourney from the Australian sides while his brother Tyrone took out the rookie of the year title. Christian Leiliifano had a solid season at fly half and showed that he has the talent to go further while Mark Chisholm earned his place in the Wallaby squad of 30 players selected this week.

The Western Force had an up and down run looking in the early rounds as if they were going to be the bolter and end up losing encounters when they just seemed not to arrive at the game.

This was evident against the Reds. The Force won four of their first six games but could then only manage three from the remaining seven matches.

Their ultimate result was just the same as the year before where it would have been hoped they could have improved their position.