Ailing Crusaders look to stop the rot
THE Canterbury Crusaders, the behemoth of southern hemisphere provincial rugby, hit a 28year low with their loss to Fijian Drua last weekend and they risk sinking into an unprecedented trough if they cannot turn their season around this week.
The Christchurch-based outfit have built a decent case for being considered the world’s most successful professional rugby team over the last three decades and have won the last seven straight iterations of Super Rugby in its various forms.
Last weekend’s 20-10 loss to Drua on a steamy afternoon in Lautoka, however, followed defeats in the first two rounds to the Waikato Chiefs and New South Wales Waratahs.
Not since the first season of Super Rugby in 1996 had the Crusaders lost three straight matches at the start of the season and they have never lost four in a row at any stage of any campaign.
Avoiding that fate at home on Friday night means beating the Wellington Hurricanes, who in 2016 were the last team apart from the Crusaders to win an international edition of Super Rugby and are the only unbeaten side in this year’s competition. The loss of coach Scott Robertson to the All Blacks job and stalwarts like Richie Mo’unga and Sam Whitelock to Japan and France at the end of last season would have hurt any team.
New coach Rob Penney is also having to do without world class outside back Will Jordan, who will miss the entire campaign after having shoulder surgery. The Crusaders have lost world class players before, of course, but they were always able to rely on their enviable production line of new talent to fill the gaps.
Ila (Ilaisa Droasese) has been great. I think having him back there at fullback was good
– Mick Byrne