Class of ’98 set the bar
If the 2018 Crusaders win their first backto-back Super Rugby titles for 12 years, they should raise a glass to a bunch of middle aged blokes tossing back a few of their own this weekend.
The 1998 Crusaders – most of them, at least – are staging a reunion around Saturday night’s match at AMI Stadium – to mark the 20th anniversary of their ground-breaking Super Rugby final win over Graham Henry’s All Black-stacked Blues.
The wheel has turned full circle. Two decades ago, flankers Scott Robertson and Angus Gardiner were vying for the Crusaders’ No 7 jumper.
Today, Robertson is the Crusaders’ head coach and Gardiner is his general manager of professional rugby.
Both are busy living in ‘‘the now’’ – good Wayne Smith phrase that – but acknowledge the 1998 season was the start of Super Rugby’s most successful dynasty – the first of eight titles.
Gardiner says the players weren’t aware they were forging the first chapter in a proud history.
‘‘But, with the benefit of time, perhaps it was a starting point for what’s gone since.’’ Not just for the Crusaders, but for New Zealand and world rugby.
Wayne Smith – aka The Professor- was the Crusaders head coach in 1998. Steve Tew, New Zealand Rugby’s chief executive and a World Rugby board member, was Canterbury and (by extension) Crusaders CEO. Robbie Deans was team manager and Steve Hansen was in the background as part of the Canterbury NPC coaching group.
The Crusaders had a mental skills mentor, Bert Enoka – who’s since been a vital part of the All Blacks’ last two winning World Cup campaigns.
All got their big breaks in those heady early days when New Zealand rugby’s sleeping giant roused , rheumy-eyed, from a long slumber.
BASEMENT TO PENTHOUSE
The Crusaders may be red-hot favourites for this year’s Super Rugby crown, but it wasn’t necessarily the case in 1998.
The Canterbury-based franchise had finished dead-last in the first Super 12 season in 1996. Todd Blackadder once recalled the crowds were so poor that year the players could easily spot their families in the empty Lancaster Park stands.
Smith – the ex-All Black first-five– came in as Crusaders coach in 1997 and the team finished in sixth place – mid-table – as the Blues swept to a second successive title. But, the tide was about to turn.
The first wave broke in 1997 when Canterbury – coached by Robbie Deans – won their first NPC championship for 14 years. Smith, who had Peter Sloane as his assistant-coach, appointed Deans as Crusaders’ manager, and the management group set about getting the players to connect with their communities throughout the top of the South Island.
Smith and Deans had been part of the last great successful Canterbury side – Grizz Wyllie’s 1980s Ranfurly Shield heroes – and were able to draw on that goodwill and gather the public around their team.
In flanker Todd Blackadder, they had a down-to-earth leader, much respected throughout the Crusaders catchment after his country footy days in Collingwood, near Farewell Spit.
Veteran prop Stu Loe used to drive almost 100km to training, still covered in dust from a day’s graft on his farm at Scargill. ‘‘The understanding of who were we representing was a really critical part of the coaching and management team’s strategy,’’ Gardiner recalls.
‘‘We spent a lot of time on the bus [in 1997] visiting Nelson and Buller and playing pre-season games on the West Coast, stopping off at places like Maruia Springs school for afternoon tea.’’
In 1998, the roadshow ventured south to Ashburton and Timaru.
Gardiner says: ‘‘There was a big drive for everyone to understand who you were representing, that the Crusaders was a regional team and sure, it had its base in Christchurch and a good core of the team were local, but pre-season was an opportunity, in that year and subsequent years too, to cement [links with] and understand the wider region’’.
By 1998 men like Robertson and Norm Maxwell – North Island draftees when Super 12 started – had been well and truly adopted by southern supporters, and had started to be appreciate what it meant to be part of Canterbury and Crusaders’ rugby.
‘‘And we started to understand the value guys like that brought to the team,’’ Gardiner says.
Coach Smith was ahead of his time in bringing in different psychological and motivational components. His catchphrases included Kaizen – a Japanese term loosely meaning small but continual improvement. It became the closelyguarded buzz word for the Crusaders’ ‘98 campaign.
The team was pretty tight by the time the series kicked off, but Gardiner remembers ‘‘we didn’t start particularly well’’, losing three of their first four games – the last a 31-24 home defeat to the Blues.
‘‘Someone’s got a picture of the table … and the Crusaders were dead last,’’ he says.
The rest of the season became a series of cup finals for the Crusaders, who also had to cope with a season-ending Achilles tendon injury to All Blacks halfback Justin Marshall.
THE TURNAROUND
Robertson says an ‘‘honesty session’’ at training proved a critical turning point.
‘‘I remember Smithy saying ‘we’ve had a really good look at ourselves as a management group and we can be better’, and we said, as a playing group, ‘we can also be better in these areas’.
‘‘Wayne threw out all his training plans and detail and basically said, ‘how are going to play this, boys? You tell me, I’m willing to work as hard as I can. Let’s do this together’.
The quest from bottom of the log to Super Rugby champions became the Crusaders’ ‘‘Holy Grail’’.
‘‘Every round, we had to win – it was knockout straight away. We went into finals mentality … Basically, we said ‘we’re going to play like it’s our last game for the Crusaders’.
‘‘Quite cliched, but it worked, didn’t it Gus?,’’ Robertson says. ‘‘We won every game thereafter.’’
The Crusaders had to dig deep into their reserves. They didn’t have far to look for a halfback. Aaron (Oggy) Flynn stepped up masterfully to replace Marshall, as he had for another All Black, Graeme Bachop, when Canterbury saved the Ranfurly Shield against Otago in 1994.
Norm Berryman, the charismatic Northland wing who wore Blues Brothers shades off the field, proved a cult hero with his try-scoring exploits. Wellington’s Elton Moncrieff (halfback) and Ace Tiatia (hooker), and Counties first five Blair Feeney were also among the draftees.
The Crusaders’ campaign gathered momentum after their fourth round setback to the Blues.
They won their next seven games, often by slender margins, last-ditch tries or Andrew Mehrtens’ unerring boot. ‘‘Some gritty resilience got us there, probably against the odds,’’ Gardiner quipped.
But they still needed to go to Durban – an unforgiving away venue – and beat the Coastal Sharks to secure an all-important home semi-final.
’NORMANS’ CONQUESTS
If the Crusaders needed any inspiration, then Norm Maxwell provided it. The rangy young lock had been struck down by a virus in South Africa. Beset by vomiting and diarrhoea, Maxwell lost a lot of weight he could ill-afford to shed. He was placed on a drip to get some fluids into him, but he took his place at King’s Park despite also carrying a shoulder injury.
His Northland buddy Berryman starred in what still ranks – alongside last year’s Super Rugby final win at Ellis Park – among the greatest of Crusaders road victories. Hooker Mark Hammett and the metronomic Mehrtens also crossed the chalk to secure second place on the log and send the Sharks on a long flight to Christchurch. ‘‘That game was quite defining in Crusaders’ history,’’ Robertson says. ‘‘To win overseas, to get a home semi and then do it again – it was the Normans Effect, both of them. On and off the field [those displays] showed all the different characters who stood up in Crusaders’ history.’’
Around 38,000 fans flocked to the old Lancaster Park for the semi-final. Robertson remembers looking up ‘‘the packed embankment’’ and hearing the ‘‘deafening roar when Normie [Berryman] ran down the sideline to score that second try and take us into the final’’. The Crusaders celebrated a 36-32 win after two tries to roly poly Sharks prop Ollie le Roux from lineout mauls.
UPSET AT EDEN
As if it had been scripted, the Crusaders’ grand final opponents were the Blues, who had had to battle to beat the Highlanders.
Graham Henry had by then lost the three big stars of the 1996-1997 title teams – Sean Fitzpatrick, Zinzan Brooke and Jonah Lomu. But he could still field 14 All Blacks (young hooker James Christian was the odd man out) and had skipper Michael Jones, Carlos Spencer, Robin Brooke, Olo Brown and Craig Dowd with ex-All Black Andrew Blowers on the bench.
The Blues, with home advantage, were still favourites, but the Crusaders had that all-important momentum.
Gardiner also recalls they went into the game with a degree of self-belief.
‘‘Back in ‘97, we were narrowly beaten by the Blues in Pukekohe, but we pushed them quite hard… We walked off feeling we had cut ourselves short.
‘‘A lot of [the 98 Crusaders team] had played the 97 NPC for Canterbury where we turned a corner against Auckland, beating them twice at home, in a real pressure situation, once in the round-robin and then in the semi-final.
‘‘It was many of the same faces, just in a slightly different jersey, obviously the stakes were a bit higher.
‘‘Some of our guys didn’t carry the scars of earlier years against the Blues, so they had a lot more belief in their ability.
‘‘That was pretty important to the success of the team, in the end.’’
Robertson and Gardiner were platoon men in ‘98, sharing game-time on the openside flank. ‘‘I started from the bench [in the final], I remember that one,’’ Gardiner quipped. ‘‘We took turns,’’ Robertson reminded him.
They recall the ‘‘massive crowd’’ at Eden Park and the nervous anticipation. ‘‘It was our Holy Grail,’’ Robertson said. ‘‘To get to a point at the end of the season where we were put in a position to be in control of our destiny was hugely exciting.’’
Again, the Crusaders had to deal with setbacks. Berryman, playing with a bandaged right thigh, hobbled off early.
But the Crusaders showed the sort of spirit which later prompted coach Smith to say: ‘‘You can’t write off people with a heart still beating in them’’.
The first half-hour was cat-and-mouse. Mehrtens’ 31st minute penalty was the sole score of the first spell.
Tension built in a gripping second stanza. Lee Stensness carved open the Crusaders defence with a jinking run to send hooker Christian hurtling over for the game’s first try.
Adrian Cashmore landed a 40m drop goal for a 10-3 lead, but the Crusaders struck back with two big tackles by James Kerr and Mark Mayerholfer, who smashed Carlos Spencer, producing a telling turnover. Norm Maxwell scooped up the loose ball and sprinted through to score. 10-10.
Cashmore and Mehrtens traded penalties to keep it locked up at 13-apiece.
Then the Crusaders found an extra gear. Ofisa Ton’u failed to find touch from his box kick. Number eight Steve Surridge – a transplanted Aucklander – made a surge up the middle to set up quick ruck ball for Flynn.
Mehrtens dinked a left-footed kick up into the Blues’ in-goal area. Kerr, a laidback surfer from Gisborne (now a school teacher near Mount Maunganui) – put Tonu’u under all sorts of pressure. The ball squirted away from the Blues halfback. Kerr, as if anticipating a breaking wave, dived in delight to grab the match-winning try before being bear-hugged by big prop Stu Loe.
Mehrtens added the icing with his sideline conversion for a 19-13 victory as ex-All Black Buck Anderson, commenting on TV, said the Blues looked ‘‘shellshocked’’, with their ‘‘heads down’’.
‘‘They must be wondering, ‘this is what Auckland normally does to teams’, and suddenly, it’s happened to them.’’
Blackadder raised tired arms in the air as Paddy O’Brien sounded the full-time whistle. Mehrtens expressed the delight – and relief in the ranks. ‘‘Very lucky, very privileged … I’m just glad it’s over…. It’s a wonderful result.’’
’TALISMAN’
Blackadder later lifted the trophy and promptly paid homage to all the Crusaders’ constituent provinces – Nelson Bays, Marlborough, West Coast, Buller, Mid Canterbury, South Canterbury and Canterbury.
Gardiner is quick to debunk the hoary rumour that he supplied Blackadder the script. ‘‘That’s mythical – that was always Toddy’s own doing. He just said, ‘what do you think about this?
‘‘He was the talisman … he represented all those ideas and beliefs at that point of time. He was the right man to be leading us and the right man to be making that speech…’’ Thousands of Crusaders fans packed Christchurch airport for their heroes return and the crowds were three deep along Colombo Street for the midweek victory parade.
They were back a year later when the Crusaders’ defended the title in the 1999 derby final against the Highlanders at Carisbrook – and after the three-peat in Canberra in 2000.
Six of the 98 Crusaders were still around for the 2002 title triumph. By then, Robertson had reluctantly surrendered the No 7 jersey to a promising kid called Richie McCaw.
Reuben Thorne was still part of the squad in 2008 for his, and the Crusaders’ seventh winner’s medal.
Gardiner and Robertson can’t believe 20 years have passed, though ‘‘the knees do’’.
They joked the 98 team reunion is ‘‘a chance to ‘‘pull everyone together and reconnect, and tell each other how good we were’’.
‘‘Those memories never leave you,’’ Gardiner said. ‘‘It’s almost like putting pause on a video tape and leaving it on top of the machine … the body shapes might have changed a little bit, some of us have a little less hair, but the personalities and the people will still be the same. That’s the great thing about sport.’’
Robertson says the Crusaders’ pioneers have definitely left a legacy.
‘‘Everything’s still the same now in regard of the values and the people you recruit.
‘‘The same conversations are being had, the same stories are being handed down, the same people are connected – the old coaches still love to come down and watch.’’
And one thing hasn’t altered in 20 years – there’s still a Blackadder in the ranks.
Ethan Blackadder was three when his dad hoisted the 1998 Super 12 trophy. This week, the young flanker won the Crusaders’ rookie of the year award.
The more things change, the more they stay the same on the Christchurch Super Rugby production line.
‘‘The understanding of who were we representing was a really critical part of the coaching and management team’s strategy.’’
Angus Gardiner
Fifteen of the Crusaders’ first Super Rugby winning squad are still involved in the game as professional coaches, administrators or regular television commentators.
Andrew Mehrtens and Justin Marshall – the All Black halves who were cult figures in 1998 – are part of Sky Sport’s rugby commentary team.
Scott Robertson (Crusaders), Mark Hammett (Highlanders) and Tabai Matson (Chiefs) are coaching at Super Rugby level, Reuben Thorne is Canterbury’s new forwards coach while Todd Blackadder (Bath), Greg Feek (Ireland’s scrum coach), Daryl Gibson (Waratahs) and Norm Maxwell (Spain) are coaching overseas.
Daryl Lilley – the goal-kicking backline utility – has been part of Taranaki’s NPC coaching team.
Steve Lancaster and Matt Sexton work in high performance management roles at New Zealand Rugby and Angus Gardiner is the Crusaders’ general manager of professional rugby.
Many others have been, or remain, actively involved in grassroots clubs.
Sadly, the 1998 Crusaders have lost one from their ranks. Charismatic wing Norm Berryman died of a heart attack in 2015, aged only 42.
WHERE ARE THEY NOW FORWARDS
STU LOE. Crusader No 1 (by virtue of being loosehead prop in the first game in 1996) remains a farmer in Scargill, North Canterbury. Has been Glenmark Rugby Club president.
MARK HAMMETT. The 29-test All Black hooker is in his 11th year of Super Rugby coaching. Now assistant-coach at the Highlanders, he was the Crusaders’ forwards coach for four seasons and head coach at the Highlanders for another four years. Also coached the Cardiff Blues and Japans’ Sunwolves.
MATT SEXTON (hooker). Coached the Southern Kings Super Rugby team in South Africa in 2012-13 and is now New Zealand Rugby’s talent identification head.
CON BARRELL (prop) The popular mid-week tour All Black and his wife Kate are police officers on the Gold Coast.
KEVIN NEPIA (prop) Back in his Auckland hometown. Last known to be working as a long-haul truck owner-operator.
GREG FEEK (prop). The 10-test All Black’s Green Turtle cafe´ was once a popular central Christchurch hangout. Appointed scrum coach at Leinster in 2010, he has been Ireland’s set piece guru since 2011, culminating in three Six Nations title and a Grand Slam crown.
SAM JOHNSTONE (prop). The Timaru product had one game for the Crusaders and later represented and captained Marlborough.
ACE TIATIA (hooker). After playing overseas, he has his own gym in Wellington.
REUBEN THORNE (lock). Seven Super Rugby titles and 50 test caps later, the ex-All Blacks now coaches the Christ’s College XV and is set to have his first year as Canterbury assistant coach.
STEVE LANCASTER (lock). New Zealand Rugby’s head of provincial rugby after high performance roles with the Crusaders, Rugby Canada and Netball NZ.
NORM MAXWELL(lock). One of the great Crusaders characters is now a rugby coaching director in Spain.
GRAHAM JACK (lock). An aircraft engineer, All Blacks lock Chris Jack’s older brother is now Pratt and Whitney’s Christchurch Engine Centre general manager.
ANGUS GARDINER (flanker). Has worked for Canterbury rugby since 2003, as personal development manager, Canterbury and Crusaders team manager and now head of professional rugby.
SCOTT ROBERTSON (flanker). The All Black backrower coached Canterbury to NPC and Ranfurly Shield honours and, in 2017, became the first man to win Super Rugby titles as a player and a coach. Still break dancing at 43.
TODD BLACKADDER (flanker). After eight years as Crusaders head coach – and two Super Rugby silver medals – the ex-All Blacks skipper is now director of rugby with English club Bath.
STEVE SURRIDGE (No 8 ). A one-time national level judoka who became an All Black but turned to the world of finance, holding several key chief financial officer posts in the Christchurch corporate world.
CLARK MCLEOD (No 8). Mid Canterbury-born backrower returned home after a stint in Japan. Now runs a family-founded real estate company in Ashburton.
BACKS
JUSTIN MARSHALL (halfback): The man from Mataura continued to play in Europe till 2010 before settling in Queenstown. Now, Sky’s voice of rugby, he rolls those Rs all around the world, as a TV commentator.
AARON FLYNN (halfback). The NZ Maori representative, was a Sydenham stalwart, is now general manager of the Linwood Rugby Club in Christchurch.
ELTON MONCRIEF (halfback). A Wellington halfback believed to be enjoying life back in the capital.
ANDREW MEHRTENS (first five-eighth). The Crusaders’ first rugby hero was still kicking goals in France as a 40-year-old. A BNZ sales director in Auckland, he still entertains the rugby public as a wry expert analyst on Sky Sport.
BLAIR FEENEY (utility back). A Counties Manukau Steeler who later played in England and Italy. Works as a real estate agent in Pukekohe.
MARK MAYERHOFLER (midfielder). A foundation Crusader and 1998 All Black had five years at the Newcastle Falcons, then he worked in high performance for North Harbour Rugby. Now a senior cabin crew manager for Air New Zealand.
TABAI MATSON (midfielder). The Chiefs’ backline coach, who played for the All Blacks and Fiji, coached Canterbury to NPC and Ranfurly Shield honours and was Blackadder’s assistant at the Crusaders for four years and, for a season, at Bath.
DARYL GIBSON (fullback). Returned from success with the Leicester Tigers to become Blackadder’s first backline coach, but left for the Waratahs when his portfolio was changed in 2013. Now in his third season as Waratahs head coach.
TONY MARSH (midfielder). Won the French title and two European Cups with Clermont Ferrand and earned 21 French caps, returning from chemotherapy treatment for testicular cancer to play at the 2003 RWC. Runs a strength and conditioning business in Auckland.
NORM BERRYMAN (wing). Another engaging character from Northland, Berryman should have had more than his one test for the All Blacks. Later played in France and was a NZ Maori stalwart. Sadly, died of a heart attack in Perth in 2015.
JAMES KERR (wing). Forever a Crusaders folk hero after scoring the winning try in the 1998 final. A school teacher in Bay of Plenty, he lives at Mt Maunganui.
DARYL LILLEY (utility). Works as a skills coach in Japan and was New Plymouth HS’s director of rugby but is now the Taranaki NPC team’s skills and kicking coach.