Read and Crotty okay
‘‘He will be monitored early in the week as he reintegrates to training.’’
The Crusaders medical team on Kieran Read
Scott Robertson will start with the controllables ahead of the Super Rugby quarterfinal against the Sharks next Saturday night.
Then Crusaders coach Robertson has to start crossing his fingers. That starts with hoping All Blacks Kieran Read and Ryan Crotty recover from injuries and that Sanzaar allocates him a referee who can use common sense for the sudden-death game at AMI Stadium in Christchurch.
With the Sharks confirmed as their opponents the Crusaders can implement a game strategy that they believe can help them advance to the semis. They will also have a contingency plan in case No 8 Read and midfielder Crotty are declared unfit.
Read suffered an injury in the wrist/thumb area during the 54-17 win over the Blues on Saturday night and was replaced at halftime. Crotty also left the field, in the 52nd minute, with a sore thumb.
An update from the Crusaders’ medical team was encouraging. Read ‘‘has been cleared of any significant injury’’, the Crusaders said in a statement: ‘‘He will be monitored early in the week as he reintegrates to training.’’
A medical check-up yesterday morning revealed Crotty’s injury wasn’t serious.
The Crusaders are also expected to soup-up their tight five by bringing back All Blacks Codie Taylor, Owen Franks and Scott Barrett. Joe Moody is still recovering from a knee injury suffered in the previous round, and could be, at best, a 50-50 chance.
David Havili is expected to return to fullback in place of Israel Dagg, who has confirmed he will follow Matt Todd to play in Japan after Super Rugby and will return for the following season.
The Sharks are something of an unknown for Robertson. Although his performance analyst will have a mountain of data and footage to sift through, the quirks of the Sanzaar competition mean the Crusaders have not played the South African side in the last two years.
What Robertson will know is that when they turn-up, they can be potent – as witnessed when they almost upset the Hurricanes in Napier on April 6. But the Durban-based team can also be inconsistent, having recorded just seven wins this season.
Robertson accepts it would be folly to try to be too clever so close to the playoffs.
‘‘It’s fine-tune [time],’’ he said. ‘‘We have to be better around some of the key aspects of our game, around our maul and our scrum, and mentally we need to be sharper with a couple of our calls that we made and little bit of tactical stuff.
‘‘We just have to get really excited. That’s my job as a coach, to make sure we have got a finals mentality.’’
Robertson will also hope Sanzaar allocates a referee who has the bottle to use common sense, and not feel intimidated by the law book; because it would be a travesty if the playoffs were overshadowed by trigger happy officials – something that has been too prevalent during the regular season.
Sunwolves coach Tony Brown and his Reds counterpart Brad Thorn, both former All Blacks, were horrified when Sunwolves forward Ed Quirk was red carded by referee Ben O’Keeffe for a feather duster facial on Reds playmaker Hamish Stewart on Friday night.
‘‘It’s just got bizarre. The referees are almost looking to promote themselves by being in the media, being the guy that does it,’’ Brown said. ‘‘‘I’ve got no other option’, what a load of crap. That’s just embarrassing.’’