OPINION:
At the end of a wretched 80 minutes for Brad Weber and his Chiefs team at the hands of the Crusaders and to a lesser extent the match officials in Christchurch last weekend, the little halfback likely spoke for many neutrals when he described the home team's tactics of scrummaging for penalties as, and I paraphrase a little here: "pretty boring but pretty effective."
Weber was dead right and other than being congratulated for his restraint in refusing to criticise a blunder which saw him yellow carded for a professional foul despite the clear knock-on by Richie Mo'unga that immediately preceded it (which was missed by television match official Paul Williams and his colleagues), Weber should also be given credit for his honesty in describing the way the Crusaders can kill games almost at will these days.
Any backline or set of fans would love to play behind or support a pack as destructive as the Crusaders', but their dominance is turning Super Rugby Aotearoa into a procession. If it was a modern America's Cup yacht race, the red and blacks would be up on the foils and the Chiefs, Highlanders and Hurricanes part of the spectator fleet – interested onlookers but without the resources or expertise to get involved in the race proper.
So it's fortunate the Blues are the Crusaders' next opponents – at Eden Park on Sunday afternoon – because they are the only team in the competition capable of matching the Crusaders up front and the fixture between the two old rivals may be provide the wind shift this competition desperately needs.