We are on our way to becoming a brutal pack, says Kruis
George Kruis believes the British and Irish Lions forwards took a significant step forward in their attempt to become a “brutal pack” for the Test series against the All Blacks by going toe-to-toe with the Crusaders forwards in the feisty encounter at the AMI Stadium yesterday.
Scott Robertson, the Crusaders coach, fielded a side with five All Blacks in the front five and at times the contest boiled over into off-the-ball scuffles as the Lions’s physicality and a superbly executed kicking game secured a 12-3 victory against the Super Rugby leaders, which was their first defeat in 18 games.
“That was a big test for us,” said Kruis, who now looks to be a certainty for the Test side after a commanding performance in which he dominated the line-out. “We knew it in the week and we trained hard for that. They average 37 [points] a game so to concede only three is huge for us. It was about on par with the physicality we expected. We knew it would be a tasty game. It got a little bit heated at times but we held our own and did a good job. We relish the opportunity to go toe-to-toe with a pack like that. We talk about how we want to be a brutal pack, a set-piece dominant pack. I think today we showed good signs of that.
“We’ve got some great leaders and some good athletes. We’re trying to come up with scenarios that on the pitch we can be unflappable.”
The Crusaders did manage to surprise the Lions scrum by driving them off their own ball in the first half and scuffles ensued as players collapsed to the ground.
Mako Vunipola, the Lions loosehead, said it was important for the tourists to ensure the Crusaders pack were not able to claim a psychological edge from the incident. “We knew it would be tough,” said Vunipola. “All these teams are fantastic and we knew Crusaders was a step up. They are top of the league in Super Rugby for a reason and it was a good physical game and I enjoyed it.
“They were just shouting, nothing really that specific, just celebrating. Any forward will want to try and get the ascendancy like that. We have to try and concentrate a bit more and we obviously knew that they could attack us. To be fair to them, it would probably be the same if we got the pushover on them so it’s one of those things as players, you just have to adapt to in the next scrum.
“They have got a decent front five but their pack in general is one of the strongest, if not the strongest, in the competition. I think us, as a forward pack, we needed to stick together and go together as an eight and I thought we went all right tonight.”