Super Rugby: Joe Moody's latest injury the only worry for rampant Crusaders

Joe Moody was injured in the Crusaders win over the Chiefs. Photo / Photosport

As the Crusaders march towards the playoffs again, the only pebble in the shoe of coach Scott Robertson is the latest injury to loosehead prop Joe Moody.

Moody sprained his right ankle in his team's 57-28 thrashing of the Chiefs at Christchurch Stadium on Saturday, and with Tim Perry already out until near the end of the season with a broken arm suffered in round one, the Crusaders are running out of looseheads.

Robertson said he would know more about Moody's condition in the next few days, but he is unlikely to play the Highlanders in Dunedin on Saturday and will probably be out for several weeks.

Moody suffered the injury after only a couple of minutes, and played on – including packing down in a scrum – before leaving the field after seven minutes. The All Black's latest misfortune is an addition to last year's broken thumb, broken finger, and split eye-lid.

With no Wyatt Crockett at the Crusaders following the veteran's retirement, a position of real strength has become thinner in terms of reinforcements. Harry Allen did well to play more than 70 minutes as Moody's replacement, but with Owen Franks rested, the Crusaders scrum went backwards a few times before recovering.

"What an effort from a 20-year-old - to play 70-odd minutes is huge," Robertson said of Allen, who is in his first year at this level. "He's got a great future. There was sort of a little bit of Wyatt Crockett about it, to come on and just do the job. For a young fella, [I'm] really proud.

"[Assistant coach] Jason Ryan has done a lot of work with [our] props - all our props, to get them ready at any time. It was a bit see-saw there, but in the end, we did enough, and created enough off our scrums to still perform."

Otherwise it was all just about good news for the Crusaders, who in scoring nine tries to four showed why they will be hot favourites to make it Super Rugby title No 3 under Robertson. They are out by themselves at the top of the table.

Skipper Ryan Crotty was as accurate as always and returned to the pitch following a head injury assessment. And with debutant Sevu Reece and Will Jordan, Jack Goodhue, Braydon Ennor and replacement fullback David Havili running amok in the backline, the Crusaders had far too much firepower for a struggling Chiefs team yet to win this year.

"We were a bit more ruthless," said Crotty of the Crusaders' finishing.

In their previous home game, the Crusaders allowed the Hurricanes to score two late tries to deny them a winning bonus point, but while the Chiefs scored a late brace, Crotty's men were out of reach.

"We put it right out of touch," he said. "Still disappointing to let them get a couple of dots at the end, but that's the bar we set for ourselves."