No lark for Crusaders
Scott Robertson issued a sharp response when asked if this outing in Waimumu counted for much.
No Super Rugby competition points will be riding on the outcome of the pre-season game between the Crusaders and Highlanders when they play in the middle of the Southern Field Days venue near Gore, but it would play for the players not to get distracted by the whiff of tractor diesel fumes or spitting barbeques.
‘‘It’s a game,’’ Crusaders coach Robertson emphasised. ‘‘And you have to have that mindset going into it.
‘‘There’s collisions and there is contact. There are a couple of new rules that we have to get right, and there are the structures we have to get right as well. It is a game and the guys are playing for a chance to get selected against the Chiefs.’’
In other words, no-one should treat this as if it as irrelevant as a pie-tasting contest. Do that, and some necks could be in the chopping block when Robertson confirms his selections for the Crusaders first game against the Chiefs in Christchurch on February 24.
It is always foolhardy to read too much into the results of preseason games.
For starters the Crusaders are expected to cap all of their All Blacks’ minutes at just 40 minutes each. That is part of the agreement with the All Blacks management, who have said they only want the international players averaging 60 minutes a game in the first three contests of the year.
Although it makes little sense for coaches to burn-up their quota of minutes for key players in a non-competition game, they will be still be required to put everything in.
Twenty-nine players have been listed on the team sheet, and among the reserves is evergreen prop Chris King who has been invited into the squad because Joe Moody is yet to return following shoulder surgery and Tim Perry has been troubled by an Achilles tendon.
Rookie Braydon Ennor, who impressed with Canterbury during the Mitre 10 Cup, has secured a starter’s spot on the left wing. Given the squad is loaded with quality finishers, the fight for that jersey won’t lack bite.
With All Blacks captain Kieran Read unavailable until mid-April because he is recovering from back surgery, Jordan Taufua starts at No 8. Switching him from blindside flanker creates a chance
for Pete Samu to start on the side of the scrum.
Robertson will be familiar with his adversary. New Highlanders coach Aaron Mauger assisted Robertson with the Canterbury team in 2013, and they also played together with the Crusaders and Canterbury.
Mauger, having returned to New Zealand because English club Leicester didn’t offer him a job after he worked as a temporary replacement for sacked head coach Richard Cockerill, is expected to favour the attacking philosophy that proved popular under predecessors Tony Brown and Jamie Joseph.
Given they topped the NZ conference and dropped just one game during their march to the Super Rugby title last year, the Crusaders know they will have a bullseye tacked on their shirts.
‘‘I think it’s natural when you lead the competition and win it,’’ Robertson said. ‘‘It is just part of being successful. If it is a target or a scalp, whatever you want to call it, I think it is just part of human nature.’’