Cheree Kinnear gives the highs and lows of the weekend's sport all in 90 seconds. Video / Photosport
OPINION:
The resilience of the Crusaders in Canberra and the attacking precision of the Blues at Eden Park has pushed Super Rugby closer to the dream final the competition craves.
Given all that Super Rugby has endured this past decade – the endless format changes, the nonsensical conference system andthe weird agreement to hand some teams a free pass to the finals – it needs something enduring and sustainable to recast it as credible and compelling.
There's no doubt now as we close in on the play-offs, that the new foundation on which Super Rugby Pacific will be built is an intense rivalry between the Blues and the Crusaders.
These two are the jewel in Super Rugby's crown and so let them take lumps out of each other, bag one another in the press and ham the whole rivalry to high heaven.
Rivalry is the fuel that drives the audience to top level sport.
Tennis boomed when Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe clashed; athletics was unmissable through the late 1970s and 1980s when Steve Ovett and Seb Coe were racing and Formula One's popularity is built more on the rivalry between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen than it is the insights offered by Drive to Survive.
Super Rugby needs the tension of a couple of heavyweights slugging it out.
Beauden Barrett of the Blues fends off Will Jordan of the Crusaders during their clash in April. Photosport
The Brumbies are on to something certainly. The Waratahs have piqued everyone's interest with their unexpected revival.
The Chiefs and Hurricanes are capable and at times a lot more than that, but there's an unrivalled quality about the Blues and Crusaders. They both have star quality and a deeper collective cohesion.
They have superior set-piece weaponry and innate confidence in their abilities under pressure which set them apart from the other 10 teams in Super Rugby Pacific.
The Crusaders may have wobbled in Sydney when they were hit by a stunning performance by the Waratahs, but with Richie Mo'unga restored at No 10 in Canberra, as well as Scott Barrett, they were back to their crushing, fearless, unflappable best.
The thing about the Crusaders, and there is only a patchy and largely unconvincing body of evidence weighing against this, is that they thrive under pressure and have an unrivalled ability to stay calm and focused in the big moments.
The Brumbies threw the kitchen sink at them, pulled them and twisted them at times, particularly in the last 10 minutes, but the Crusaders always had the right response: they were able to absorb and retaliate and while it ended up relatively close, there was never a sense of the visitors being anything other than in control.
The Blues don't have that same history of resilience. They are new to this business of consistently winning, but they have perhaps an even greater conviction about them at the moment.
They are playing with the sort of belief that hasn't been seen since 2003 and what makes them so much more threatening and durable, is that selflessness is the underlying feature of their game.
No one in their star-studded backline is overplaying their hand or doing things alone.
It wasn't the speed and movement of their individual athletes that blew the Reds away on Saturday night, but the quality of their passing, precision of their timing and generosity of their decision-making to always put the team first.
They face a daunting finish to their regular season with away fixtures against the Brumbies and Waratahs – two games that will reveal plenty about their depth of character and ability to carry the burden that comes with the pressure of being the favourite.
They have, however, a healthy seven-point lead on the table, which gives them the certainty of knowing that one more win will secure the top qualifying spot, while the Crusaders, with home games to come against the Drua and Reds, will be targeting a 10-point haul which they will hope pushes them past the Brumbies into second place.
If those two do indeed finish one and two, it's hard to see how they wouldn't use home advantage to set up a final between each other.
And nothing could do more to lift the profile of Super Rugby than a Blues versus Crusaders final at Eden Park.
It could signal a return to the old days of these two – under the guise of Auckland and Canterbury – producing epic rugby that equally enthrals and divides the nation.
But most importantly it would have people engaging with Super Rugby as a self-contained entity that matters in its own right and not for what it potentially means for All Blacks selection or their future prospects.
A Blues versus Crusaders final would be a welcome reminder that rivalry and tribalism are what can make Super Rugby great again.
