Can anyone conquer the Crusaders?
OPINION: The Crusaders are starting to become Super Rugby’s equivalent of a mirage.
The lengthening line of teams to have lost to them this season are starting to sound like they’ve seen things that aren’t there.
They feel they’ve played some good footy, maybe even done enough good things to win. They certainly don’t feel as if they’ve been beaten and, yet, the scoreboard says they’ve lost.
It’s an amazing skill the Crusaders have. They absorb, they punish mistakes but - most important of all - they don’t beat themselves.
Are they the competition’s most exciting team? Do they produce passages of play that will linger long in the memory? No.
But what the Crusaders do do is con attacking teams. They offer space to play into and then take it away. You might rate your attack, but they know their defence is better.
And they get performances from everyone. All Blacks star or emerging provincial battler, they all buy in and they all do their job.
Chiefs by how many?
You’ll remember Blues forward Steven Luatua being sent off - and rightly so - the last time these teams met. His absence, and some cheap late points, helped Blues sympathisers suggest the match had resembled a contest. It wasn’t at any stage.
The Chiefs dismantled the Blues’ scrum and lineout in clinical fashion and I’m not sure I’ve enjoyed a display a forward domination more this season.
The final score of 41-26 didn’t indicate the extent of the Chiefs’ superiority, but they’ll get a chance to right that at Eden Park tonight. The Blues’ set-pieces are still shaky and a 20 or 30-point win to the visitors seems likely.
Watch out Waratahs and Crusaders
Hurricanes coach Chris Boyd loves rugby. Watching it, talking about it, looking at the schedule and imagining how matches might go; they all enthuse him greatly.
It’s not just the fortunes of his own franchise that pique his interest, either.
‘‘The Highlanders had a pretty tough start,’’ Boyd said, as the Hurricanes set off for South Africa on Sunday.
‘‘They had the four New Zealand sides in the first four weeks and lost three or four of those games, I can’t remember.
‘‘They’ve flown under the radar. I think anybody who disregards the Highlanders for playoffs contention and beyond would be foolish. They’ve got a big game coming up against the Crusaders, so that’s pretty pivotal for them.’’
The Highlanders host the Waratahs tomorrow, before meeting the Crusaders in Christchurch on June 3. No doubt Boyd will be watching.
Who cares who kicks?
Was interesting to talk to Hurricanes first five-eighth Beauden Barrett about goalkicking the other day. Not so much the act of kicking, but who the kicker is. He and brother Jordie Barrett and Otere Black have all kicked for the team this season. Halfback TJ Perenara has teed an attempt up too.
There wouldn’t be a Hurricanes media session that goes by without someone asking who’ll kick goals, and each time the coach or player will respond to the question with a shrug of the shoulders and something non-committal.
Listening to Barrett, he suggested the kickers themselves place almost no importance upon it. As long as someone kicks, and feels they’re striking them well, then the identity of the kicker is immaterial.
They take ego and pressure out of the equation and just agree among themselves who’ll kick and then get on with it.