Crusaders coach Scott Robertson. Photo / Photosport
Crusaders coach Scott Robertson. Photo / Photosport
Phil Gifford lists five talking points from a dramatic round of Super Rugby Pacific.
MARK THE DATE DOWN
Memo to Auckland Transport: It would be great if you could have buses and trains running in the vicinity of Eden Park next Saturday night.
If ever there’s a promoter’s dream, ithas to be the Crusaders coming to Eden Park to play the Blues on Saturday.
What’s not to love? There’s the chance the Blues have to get some revenge for the 21-7 trouncing in last year’s final, and the need for the Crusaders to get fully back on track, after this year’s horror start. There’s a rivalry in Super Rugby that goes back to the 1998 final when the Crusaders, as rank underdogs, stunned a Blues team that started 14 All Blacks at Eden Park. Or the day at Jade Stadium in 2004 when Carlos Spencer scored a try, ran almost to the sideline, nonchalantly kicked the conversion he’d deliberately made so difficult for himself, and then flipped the bird at the baying Christchurch crowd.
If the weather’s good another classic chapter in the battle may be written. For the Blues to win they’ll need to move the ball to strike weapons out wide like Rieko Ioane and Mark Telea and avoid a mauling, wrestling forwards’ battle.
CLOSE, BUT NOT THE COMPLETE PACKAGE YET
Ahead of the Hurricanes 22-5 at halftime in Wellington, the Blues wracked their supporters’ nerves as the home team threatened to snatch victory, before the Blues clung on to win 25-19.
To be fair to the Blues, there was some outstanding rugby from the Canes, most notably from wing Salesi Rayasi, a looming, threatening presence, whose 47th-minute try was a masterclass in running perfect evasive lines. Hooker Asafo Aumua also didn’t see a single Blues’ player he didn’t want to knock over.
But the second-half fade, most notably in the Blues’ lineout play, which became almost farcically bad, shouldn’t obscure the fact that in the first half it was all Blues. From Patrick Tuipulotu’s workmanlike fourth-minute try from a lineout maul, to the speed and accuracy of Caleb Clarke’s 35th minute try and the dynamic form of Hoskins Sotutu.
Caleb Clarke makes his way to the tryline against the Hurricanes. Photo / Getty
STRANGE DAYS INDEED
Weirdness on an almost psychedelic level was everywhere in the Wellington game. The best line from a commentator this year belonged to Justin Marshall when he said “I just saw a unicorn behind the goalposts too” after Jordie Barrett, attempting a 25th-minute conversion from straight in front, unbelievably kicked the ball into an upright.
If that wasn’t, as your grandparents used to say, trippy enough, how the 50th-minute try to Canes’ fullback Joshua Moorby was awarded also defied belief. It was a great effort by Moorby to get to the line, but I’d bet good money the vast majority of people watching the same pictures television match official Shane McDermott saw, would have said Moorby lost control of the ball.
Jordie Barrett lines up a kick at goal during warm-up at Levin Domain. Photo / RADARPhotography
PROMISE FULFILLED
Peter Lakai stepped into Ardie Savea’s No 8 shoes with a huge reputation, as a New Zealand age group star, and Wellington’s rookie of the year in last year’s NPC. In his first game for the Canes he showed exactly why good judges see a massive future for him.
LISTEN TO THE BEAR
The great Amercan football coach Bear Bryant swore that “if you display character the winning takes care of itself.” So first, a huge hand to the Fijian Drua, who, under huge threat in the dying moments of their game with the Crusaders in Lautoka, held their nerve to win 25-24.
Applause too for kicker Kemu Valentini, a 28-year-old veteran in his first game for the Drua, whose penalty in the 82nd minute would have been a simple kick if the whole game hadn’t depended on it. The Drua were dynamic, and the packed, fervent, crowd helped make the Lautoka game the highlight of the round.
What will be fascinating now is how a full-strength Crusaders’ side will respond to a grim start, with two losses from three games.
Is it a new feeling for coach Scott Robertson? Not as a player. In 1998 he was a hard-charging flanker in a Crusaders side that lost three out of their first four games before going on to take the title. Not as a coach either. In 2018, in his second season as the Crusaders’ coach, they lost two of their first four, but still won Robertson’s second championship.
The challenge of the Blues, and then the Brumbies in Christchurch the following Friday, is huge. But the Crusaders are a group that famously rises to the big occasion.
