Crusaders can start planning victory parade
Coach Scott Robertson has built a team that lives up to the franchise’s glorious past.
Scott Robertson says this is the fittest Crusaders side in quite some time, and believes it’s a big key to his team’s remarkable 12 from 12 start to the Super Rugby season.
Non-fancied by plenty heading into 2017, the Crusaders have now notched a club and competition record for successive victories, with their latest a gutsy 31-24 result against the Chiefs in Fiji on Friday night, which has them well on track to top the New Zealand conference and claim allimportant home advantage for the playoffs
Not only have the Christchurchbased outfit operated without star men for several games - in Suva they were minus All Blacks Kieran Read, Matt Todd, Scott Barrett and Israel Dagg, while Ryan Crotty left with concussion inside the first quarter - they have also shown a penchant to fight their way back from behind.
Of their 12 games, the Crusaders haven’t had a halftime lead in five of them, including all four of their crucial derby matches.
In those derbies they’ve only managed two first-half tries, but then only conceded two secondhalf tries. Overall they’ve scored 217 first-half points to 239 secondhalf points, while conceding 130 compared with 101.
There’s certainly a strong resolve and mental fortitude to force their way back and close out contests, and the bench has been superb; though on top of that, Robertson, in his first year at the helm, is seeing the rewards of a tough training regime. He’s a quirky one, the man they call ‘Razor’.
As casual as they come, seemingly just one of the boys and always good for a quip. And maybe that breath of fresh air, particularly different to Todd Blackadder, has done a job in itself.
But on the back of great success with Canterbury and the New Zealand Under-20s, he has also got to grips with a handy fitness plan, taking into account running metres for various positions on the park, which has transformed the team’s training style, and is working wonders.
‘‘We’re fit, very very fit, the fittest we’ve been for a long time,’’ said Robertson, who paid credit to strength and conditioning coach Simon Thomas and the support crew. ’’What we did was in the preseason time, make sure we got enough kilometres in our legs so that we could last the season, and kick on at the end of games.
‘‘We’ve trained different through the week... to get our running metres up. It’s pretty scientific, you don’t just turn up and run from line to line.
‘‘Everyone’s got a goal each week they need to achieve and then they’ve got to make it faster the next time. So there’s a lot of running miles, and the balance of the week to make sure we can keep conditioned in-season’s critical as well.
‘‘It’s a whole big picture, support staff, and a lot of philosophy on the way I like to run my week with them. So, so far so good.’’
Particularly so considering the team’s recent travel schedule, which could conceivably have tripped them up, having arrived back from South Africa to face the Hurricanes, then flying to Fiji for the Chiefs, with a trip to Melbourne for next weekend.
‘‘My language and mindset, I’m big on the way we talk. The draw’s the draw, and you embrace it,’’ Robertson said.
‘‘We recover like it means everything to us, it’s a part of training, really. So as a group we’re extremely professional and we make sure we enjoy what we do. It could be a distraction, but there’s no excuses in this team, we embrace what’s in front of us.’’
That means now carrying on to claim top spot in the conference. With an 11-point buffer, it will take quite something for them to be overtaken.
No need to whisper it any more. If you live in Canterbury it’s time to get ready to party like it’s 1998.
Time to stop yearning for the excitement of the ‘98 Crusaders win over the apparently invincible Auckland Blues. Good times are here again.
Time to think about how much fun the ‘98 victory parade was, when Christchurch traffic officials estimated 100,000 people packed Colombo St, a bigger crowd than the annual Santa parade drew. Get out your walking shoes.
Time to also take coach Scott Robertson very, very seriously indeed.
Robertson has proved that having a bit of fun and winning big rugby games are not mutually exclusive. It’s true the man they call Razor is cut from different cloth to any other New Zealand rugby coach. No matter how I wrack my brain, I can’t think of another New Zealand coach who would break dance to celebrate title victories.
But as much fun as the side shows are, don’t be distracted from his concrete achievements.
The stunning defence that closed down the Barrett brothers last weekend and that pressured Aaron Cruden in the second half in Suva was down to Robertson.
Defence was his speciality as a loose forward, and he’s the one in the Crusaders’ coaching team who devises the methods that have now seen his team nullify two terrific backlines, from the Hurricanes and the Chiefs.
In ‘98, coach Wayne Smith put together a Crusaders side that was, in the words of Smith’s captain, Todd Blackadder, ‘‘a team of nobodies, with elder statesmen in the front row, two skinny locks, held together by skinny loose forwards.’’
Robertson and his back specialists, Leon MacDonald and Brad Mooar, have worked the same sort of miracle with the 2017 backline.
If Ryan Crotty recovers from the concussion he suffered in Suva he would have to be one of the first backs picked for the All Blacks to face the Lions. Do football brains, courage, technique and coolness under pressure ring a bell? You’re right. Comparing Crotty to the wonderful Conrad Smith is entirely reasonable.
But what’s really remarkable is how the well the rest of the backline, not exactly loaded with household names, has shaped up.
Honesty call? Unless you’re family, would you have tipped George Bridge as the standout three-quarter he is in 2017? Would you have predicted that David Havili would be running second in metres gained in the whole of super rugby?
At first-five Richie Mo’unga, who looked highly promising last year, has improved to the stage where you can almost see the neon sign saying ‘‘Future All Black’’ blinking above him every time he takes the field.
And as well as the backline has functioned, an even bigger strength for the Crusaders this year has been the forward pack. It’s stacked with All Blacks, but recent years have shown, especially against a big, grumpy, scrappy, skilful outfit like the Chiefs, big names alone don’t guarantee success.
But people near to the Crusaders say that current forward coach Jason Ryan hasn’t been afraid to play the bad cop to Robertson’s good cop, and the results, whether in the technical near perfection at scrum and lineout time, or the fervour at breakdowns, has been outstanding.
The relatively comfortable win over the Canes, and the more hard fought victory over the Chiefs, were both built on outstanding forward play.
When shoo-in All Black picks like Sam Whitelock and Owen Franks are playing like fringe selections, desperate to make an impression, you know the formula Ryan and Robertson are using is right.
There’s a possibility the Lions could finish ahead of the Crusaders come mid-July when the knockout section’s draw is decided.
But don’t put away the flags and bunting in Christchurch. We now know this Crusaders team is so good even the dipsticks who run Super Rugby won’t stop them winning this year.