Crusaders to tick off All Blacks protocols
Carefully managing All Blacks’ playing minutes will soon be something Scott Robertson doesn’t have to fret over.
Armed with more All Blacks than any other side, the Crusaders head coach can bin the everchanging spreadsheet he and Angus Gardiner, the team’s general manager for professional rugby, put together ahead of the season.
Having left Richie Mo’unga, Braydon Ennor, Ethan Blackadder and George Bridge out of his side to play the Waratahs tonight, he’s almost ticked off the New Zealand Rugby-enforced requirements for another year.
‘‘This is pretty much it, really. For us, there might be a couple of lower minute performances, but that’s one good thing about the tour [of Australia], we can tick that box,’’ Robertson said.
Managing the playing minutes of All Blacks is no easy task, especially when you’re juggling a competitionhigh 13 of them.
While restrictions aren’t necessarily set in concrete, the management of All Blacks included a guideline regarding return to play (60 minutes off across first three games), and limiting players to no more than six consecutive games during the regular season.
‘‘No,’’ was Robertson’s answer when asked if managing so many All Blacks had become easier, given he’d been doing it since taking over from Todd Blackadder ahead of the 2017 season.
‘‘No, you have all the plans, and they change. You have your little bit of a matrix. I sit down with Angus Gardiner, and we get our chart sorted, and then you plan for the start of the year, and it just evolves from week to week with injuries. Like, Joe [Moody] is a prime example.
‘‘Each year is different. We’ve had 13 All Blacks that we’ve had to juggle over this year . . . but you try and give a player as much of an early warning, so he can go and do what he needs to do and have that whole week off. Not just from
What: Where, when:
Crusaders:
Waratahs: ■ playing, but get away from the whole environment.’’
Following the Crusaders’ round 11 game against the Waratahs, they face both the Force and Brumbies on the road, before returning home to close out the regular season against the Fijian Drua and Reds.
Including the possibility of playing three sudden-death matches, that leaves a maximum of eight games remaining.
The Crusaders hadn’t originally planned to rest the aforementioned All Blacks this week, but that changed when their Easter bye week was replaced by the postponed home fixture against the Blues.
It means Fergus Burke, who led the Crusaders to wins against the Hurricanes and Highlanders in Mo’unga’s absence to start the season, steps back into the No 10 jersey against the much improved Waratahs.
‘‘He played incredibly well the first couple of games of the year when Richie wasn’t there, and he was one of the best on the field, so we just go back and basically replicate that,’’ Robertson said.
A week after All Blacks Will Jordan and David Havili sat out their 42-17 win against the Rebels, hooker and interim captain Codie Taylor is set to play a sixth straight game, meaning he could sit out next week’s game against the Force in Perth.
But first things first. The Waratahs are the most improved Super Rugby side across both New Zealand and Australia this season.
Highlighted by flankers Charlie Gamble, a Christchurch product and former Crusaders academy member, and Wallabies captain Michael Hooper making a nuisance of themselves at the breakdown, it’s clear they are not the easybeats of 2021.
‘‘A much better defensive side, there’s definitely a bit of grit,’’ Robertson said.
‘‘The breakdown stuff, they are brutal, they go hard at it. They are a really physical side, so probably the contact side of it, we’ve seen some great improvements.’’