Canes front row braces for the ultimate test

There are times when the scoreboard is of secondary importance to frontrowers.

The marketeers will tell you tonight’s match between the Hurricanes and Crusaders in Christchurch is massive. It’s not and neither team’s season will be determined by the outcome.

For the Hurricanes’ props, particularly, there’s more at stake than the result anyway. They judge their worth as players on the strength of how they fare on their annual trip to AMI Stadium.

‘‘They’re bloody powerful and they’re clinical and they’re the benchmark power scrum of the competition. This is what you gear up for all year, as an opposition,’’ Hurricanes prop Ben May said.

Twenty years ago, the Blues’ frontrow of Olo Brown, Sean Fitzpatrick and Craig Dowd was the one all others were measured against. Since then, though, it’s been the Crusaders, whose coaching and talent identification and personnel have ensured a remarkable run of dominance.

May is a product of the Crusaders’ system, making his Super Rugby debut for them against the Lions in Johannesburg in 2007.

‘‘Combinations in scrums and connections with players week in and week out is huge, so they’ve had a solid score of that scrum together for years,’’ said May, 34.

‘‘They’ve just been building and building and a lot of frontrowers get better with age, to a certain extent, and their frontrowers have been around the traps and played a lot of test match footy.‘‘