Rugby: Good chance of rematch with Reds

The Reds and the Crusaders facing off last Sunday. Photo / Getty Images

Just four times in the title-heavy, 16-year history of the Crusaders have they lost more times than they have this year. Two of those occasions were 1996 and '97, the first two years of the Super 12 when the team from Canterbury were anything but super.

Since 1998 they have picked up the title seven times, finished runners-up twice and failed to make the semifinals only once.

So this season's bald figures - nine wins and a draw from 14 matches and a tenuous fourth on the ladder - would suggest, even taking into account the competition's reformatting, a fairly ho-hum campaign by their standards.

Far from it.

If anything, what the Crusaders have done in 2011 under Todd Blackadder surpasses anything they have achieved before, with the exception of their unbeaten 2002.

Right now they're feeling sick about Sunday's matinee match, a 17-16 loss to the Reds that gives the Blues some breathing space at the top of the New Zealand conference and almost certainly the Queenslanders pole position for the playoffs.

They feel swindled by controversial referee Stuart Dickinson, who dished out a 12-4 penalty count in favour of the hometown team, including the pivotal call against Richie McCaw in the final minute. (Dickinson would have been more justified penalising Ben Franks for leaving his feet and even that would have been harsh.)

The Australian whistler broke convention by declining to discuss his performance, although refs' boss Lyndon Bray is expected to be available to the media today. No doubt the Crusaders will be intrigued by his explanations, having as they do a week to digest the facts before they start preparing for their round 17 match against the Blues.

When you've already had the sort of obstacles that only Mother Nature could conceive thrown into your campaign, dealing with very human errors will be doubly tough to take.

But as hard as it is, the Crusaders should take great heart from Sunday's events. Nine times out of 10 that performance would have been good enough to win. Put bluntly, they looked a better team than the Reds and there's every chance they will be back at Suncorp Stadium during the playoffs to prove that.

Should that be the case, they're not likely to get Dickinson again; they're not likely to get such a listless performance out of Sonny Bill Williams; they're not likely to miss as many first-up tackles; and, with such set-piece dominance, they're unlikely to be in a position where they're clinging to such a marginal lead late in the match.

Almost certainly it will be a significantly stronger team, with either Andy Ellis or Kahn Fotuali'i a big upgrade at halfback, and Sam Whitelock and Sean Maitland also due back.

It is hard to say which is the most staggering thing about this campaign.

Is it the fact that due to the devastating earthquake that left them shaken and without their home ground, the longest they have spent in any one place this campaign is Cape Town, 11,000km from home? Or is it that they have had to cope without the services of McCaw, Dan Carter, Brad Thorn, Whitelock, Ellis, Fotuali'i, Maitland and Israel Dagg for significant portions of the season?

In future, the 2011 Crusaders will be the yardstick whenever teams talk about having their depth or resolve tested.

When sports teams talk about developing a "culture" it's usually a roll-your-eyes moment, but even the Crusaders' biggest detractors would have to concede this team have something about them that goes beyond sporting excellence.

Paradoxically, the weekend loss probably only firms the belief that this team of itinerants can be champions for the eighth time on July 9.

If that should happen, then the Crusaders would have written the Greatest Super Rugby Story Ever Told - and Dickinson would become a mere footnote in it.

Dickinson has been left off this weekend's refereeing panel.