The Mercury

No Carter for Saders clash

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THE Crusaders underlined the depth of their squad yesterday by benching one of the form players of Super Rugby Aotearoa for tomorrow’s crunch clash against the Blues.

Outside back Will Jordan scored two tries in each of the Crusaders’ last two matches to help the 10-time Super Rugby champions to a twopoint lead over the Blues at the top of the standings ahead of the match in Christchur­ch. However, coach Scott Robertson included the 22-year-old in his replacemen­ts when he named his side yesterday, recalling vice captain David Havili at fullback alongside wings George Bridge and Sevu Reece.

“It’s obviously a hard decision,” Robertson told local media.

“But when you’ve got two All Black wings and your vice captain, who was probably player of Super Rugby before Covid-19 and he got sick...”

The Blues have enjoyed a resurgence under coach Leon MacDonald this year and head into the contest on the back of three straight wins looking to snap an 11-match losing streak against the Crusaders.

“The Crusaders are the benchmark in New Zealand rugby, so we are under no illusion about the task ahead of us,” MacDonald said.

“(But) if we can implement our game plan and execute, then there is no reason why we can’t provide a stern test. And if the weather plays ball, it should be a cracking game.”

MacDonald resisted the temptation to field Crusaders and All Black great Dan Carter against his former side and retained Otere Black at flyhalf with Beauden Barrett at fullback. The 38-year-old flyhalf, who made a surprise return to New Zealand rugby after a gap of five years last month, made a successful return to the club game last weekend but will have to wait at least another week for his Blues debut.

Meanwhile, the Western Force have no problems with being tagged the “underdogs” of Super Rugby AU but the Perth-based side fully expect to be in the hunt at the “pointy end” of the domestic competitio­n, coach Tim Sampson said yesterday.

Three years after being axed from Super Rugby, the Force return to the spotlight tomorrow when they play the Waratahs at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

Bookmakers give the Force little chance of beating Australia’s four Super Rugby teams to the title, but Sampson said he was comfortabl­e with that.

“Our expectatio­ns are we’re going to perform in this competitio­n and be there at the pointy end,” he told reporters in Perth.

“We’ve set ourselves up nicely. I think we’ve been gunning for this for a while, playing against the other Australian Super Rugby clubs, and I think we’ll manage it quite well.

“We might be tagged as the underdogs – we don’t mind that. It’s fine.”

The Force are backed by mining billionair­e Andrew Forrest and have been playing in the “Global Rapid Rugby” tournament, which features modified rules and Asia-Pacific teams.

They have recruited a slew of experience­d players in recent weeks, including former Wallabies forwards Greg Holmes and Pek Cowan, and one-Test centre Kyle Godwin. Prop Holmes and Godwin were named on the bench against the Waratahs, having only recently served Australia’s mandatory quarantine period for returning residents to curb the spread of Covid-19.

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