Super ‘Nearly Men’ eye final step in latest crusade
OPINION: You could never call a team as consistently good as the Crusaders chokers. Could you?
It’s not choking to make the Super Rugby playoffs 18 of the last 20 years. Quite the opposite, in fact. It’s bloody remarkable, is what it is.
That achievement is testament to the enduring quality of the Christchurch-based franchise who possess comfortably the preeminent record in this competition. They have won seven titles (more than double their nearest challengers), been runners-up four times and on only four occasions in the 22 years of Super Rugby have they failed to be part of the post-season mix.
So let’s take the choke word off the table.
They are as enduring as Winston Peters, though perhaps equally as perplexing.
A closer perusal of the Crusaders’ record shows it has been nine years since their last title, back in 2008 when they rolled the Waratahs 20-12 in the final in Christchurch.
Since then they’ve lost four times in the semifinals, twice in the final, once (last year) in the quarterfinal and just once (2015) failed to make the playoffs.
On all of those post-2008 closebut-no-cigar misfires they have been eliminated on the road. Hmmm.
In 2017 they once again take their place in the promised land of post-season footy, and this time they will have home advantage at least as far as the semifinal. After
The Highlanders shape as a massive obstacle first up, with their big-game players, their experience in finals football over the last few years and their proven ability to go toe-to-toe with the redand-blacks. Twice they led their cross-border rivals into the last five minutes in their round-robin clashes, and twice they were pipped at the post.
Likely inclement weather and that All Black-laden home pack tilts the balance slightly in the Crusaders’ favour, but they will still have to be on top of their game to progress against a side with the X-factor and battling qualities of this Highlanders group.
Which brings us to the crux of the matter. Do the Crusaders need to go all the way this year to shake off this tag as the Nearly Men (not chokers) of Super Rugby?
You could definitely make that case. Consistency is one thing. But consistently coming up short in your ultimate goal is another.
The Crusaders ce have the recipe to contend. Legends come, and legends go, but this franchise remains one of the very best in this competition more or less on an annual basis.
But it’s the champs we remember. Not the runners-up. Just ask basketball mega-star LeBron James who’s tearing what little hair he has left out in exasperation about being left on what looks likely to be the secondbest team in the NBA for the foreseeable future.
The Crusaders don’t need another title to endorse their excellence.
That is more or less set in stone with a record none of their rivals comes close to matching.
But this is sport we are talking about, and sport is the ultimate arbitrator of success.
For the previous eight years the Crusaders have come up short of their goal. They haven’t necessarily choked. But they haven’t been good enough to win a championship when in all but one of those seasons they gave themselves a shot.
For all the pride that exists in red and black country, that has to hurt. And the only way to erase that pain is to lift the silverware. Translation: it’s win or bust for Razor Robertson and his men in the Super Rugby playoffs.
And I’m not choking.