BLUES OMIT CARTER FOR CRUSADERS SHOWDOWN
THE Canterbury Crusaders underlined the depth of their squad by benching one of the form players of Super Rugby Aotearoa for tomorrow’s crunch clash against the Blues while Dan Carter will have to wait at least another week to make his debut for the Auckland side.
Outside back Will Jordan scored two tries in each of the Crusaders’ last two matches to help the 10-times Super Rugby champions to a two-point lead over the Blues at the top of the standings ahead of the match in Christchurch.
However, coach Scott Robertson included the 22-year-old in his replacements when he named his side yesterday, recalling vice captain David Havili at fullback alongside wingers George Bridge and Sevu Reece.
‘It’s obviously a hard decision,’ Robertson told local media.
‘But when you’ve got two All Black wings and your vice captain, who was probably player of Super Rugby before Covid-19 and he got sick...’
The Blues have enjoyed a resurgence under coach Leon MacDonald this year and head into the contest on the back of three straight wins looking to snap an 11-match losing streak against the Crusaders.
‘The Crusaders are the benchmark in New Zealand rugby, so we are under no illusion about the task ahead of us,’ MacDonald said.
‘(But) if we can implement our game plan and execute, then there is no reason why we can’t provide a stern test. And if the weather plays ball, it should be a cracking game.’
MacDonald resisted the temptation to field Crusaders and All Blacks great Dan Carter against his former side and retained Otere Black at fly-half with Beauden Barrett at full-back.
The 38-year-old fly-half, who made a surprise return to New Zealand rugby after a gap of five years last month, made a successful return to the club game last weekend but will have to wait at least another week for his Blues debut.
Meanwhile, Western Force have no problems with being tagged the ‘underdogs’ of Super Rugby AU but the Perth-based side fully expect to be in the hunt at the ‘pointy end’ of the domestic competition, said coach Tim Sampson yesterday.
Three years after being axed from Super Rugby, Force return to the spotlight tomorrow when they play the Waratahs at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
Bookmakers give the Force little chance of beating Australia’s four Super Rugby teams to the title, but Sampson said he was comfortable with that.
‘Our expectations are we’re going to perform in this competition and be there at the pointy end,’ he told reporters in Perth.
‘We’ve set ourselves up nicely. I think we’ve been gunning for this for a while, playing against the other Australian Super Rugby clubs, and I think we’ll manage it quite well.
‘We might be tagged as the underdogs -- we don’t mind that. It’s fine.’
The Force are backed by mining billionaire Andrew Forrest and have been playing in the Global Rapid Rugby tournament, which features modified rules and Asia-Pacific teams.
They have recruited a slew of experienced players in recent weeks, including former
Wallabies forwards Greg Holmes and Pek Cowan, and onetest centre Kyle Godwin.
Prop Holmes and Godwin were named on the bench against the Waratahs, having only recently served Australia’s mandatory quarantine period for returning residents to curb the spread of Covid-19.
Prop Cowan, who left Force after their 2017 exit from Super Rugby, is unavailable while undergoing quarantine.
The Waratahs starting XV is unchanged from that which lost 32-26 to the Queensland Reds in the tournament opener last week and coach Rob Penney said his side needed to be careful against the Force.
‘It’s these sort of fixtures where one team gets an emotional boost, another team might be a bit low and it turns into a massive banana skin,’ he said.