If you can’t quite be bothered to invest your full attention in what is going to happen this year, cheat your little heart out with our fast guide.

RECRUITMENT BALANCE

Probably veering towards the negative because they lost two All Blacks and a Wallaby. They did however gain a couple of potentially cracking youngsters in Brett Cameron and Leicester Faingaanuku who could be long term Crusaders.

They also brought back Whetu Douglas who is a bruising force and a genuine work horse.

WHAT CAN WE EXPECT TACTICALLY?

Much the same as last year – because why change a winning formula? The Crusaders have options to play however they like and that makes them hard to shut down.

If ever they feel their pass and catch game isn't working, they will revert to a crushing forward game where they drive off lineouts, hold the ball in scrums and pick and go through the middle.

GUT FEEL – RISERS OR FALLERS?

As consecutive champions you could say they can only go down and not up. But that's the thing with the Crusaders, they tend to keep going up even though they are champions.

We believe they will modify and improve their game this year because they never stand still and there will be new bits and pieces that make than a better side.

WHERE WILL THEY FINISH?

The way to think about this is to ask whether you can see any other side being crowned champions ahead of them? That gets kind of hard to imagine as the Crusaders have too many weapons, too much experience and too many smart thinkers in their set-up to imagine they will lose many games.

So we see them making them the play-offs in control of the competition and it will take a huge performance to stop them winning it from Christchurch.