Blues wary of Crusaders
The Blues aren’t buying this “end of an era” narrative around their old mates from the Crusaders, no matter what the Super Rugby Pacific standings table tells them a month into the new season.
Vern Cotter’s 3-1 Blues host the 0-4 Crusaders at Eden Park on Saturday in a match that, truth be told, probably means more to the visitors than the hosts. The storied southern franchise has never lost four on the bounce before in the 29 years of this competition, let alone a quartet to open the season.
And with a home clash against the title favourite Chiefs to follow, there is more than a hint of a prospect of the red-andblacks opening 0-6.
This is, of course, a new era of Crusaders rugby, with serial winner coach Scott Robertson promoted to the All Blacks job after claiming seven straight championships in as many years (his replacement, Rob Penney, has now lost nine Super Rugby matches in a row as a head coach), and icons Sam Whitelock and Richie Mo’unga having shipped out for the next phases of their careers.
Throw in a couple of other key types jumping ship (Leicester Fainga’anuku and Jack Goodhue), Will Jordan (shoulder) and Brayden Ennor (knee) out for the season, Codie Taylor not due on deck until May and a lengthy injury-list that includes skipper Scott Barrett (broken finger), loosie Ethan Blackadder (calf ), No 10 Fergus Burke (Achilles), prop Tamaiti Williams (hamstring), hooker Brodie McAlister (knee), fullback Leigh Halfpenny (shoulder) and pivot Rivez Reihana (shoulder), and, well, you get the picture.
Now it looks certain that the Crusaders, who were without ex-test prop Joe Moody last week with a bout of Covid, will be down another veteran international front-rower for the Blues game with Owen Franks issued a Sanzaar red-card for dangerous play cleaning out flanker Du’Plessis Kirifi in the final moments of the 14-10 defeat to the Hurricanes last Friday.
Franks was yellow-carded at the time, but Sanzaar has upgraded the punishment and called the prop to appear before a judiciary hearing. He looks certain to join the sidelined brigade.
All of which should have the Blues feeling pretty good about their first match for the year at Eden Park on the back of a hard-fought 12-10 victory over the Waratahs in Sydney that lifted them to fourth on the standings. Should.
The Blues have lost 19 of their last 20 Super Rugby contests against the Crusaders.
So when Blues skipper Dalton Papali’i was asked about the prospect of adding to the Crusaders’ misery, he was reluctant to jump on that storyline.
“Let’s put it this way, I’ve played them a lot of times and I’ve only won once,” said the Blues loose forward with a rueful smile. “The record is 19-1 against them … I don’t care if they’re 0-4 or 4-0, to get a dubya (win) over them would mean a lot. So nothing changes with the mindset going in against the Crusaders: we want to throw everything at ‘em.”
Cotter wasn’t in any comfort zones after returning from Sydney on Sunday with a muddling, messy performance to digest.
TCotter still found enough – character, pluck and stickability – to take something away from a third victory from four this season.
“We defended well at the end of the first half and started strongly in the second, but didn’t get as many points as we’d have liked,” he said.
“We lost Rieko (early) and Dalton (late) as well, so it was a difficult night. I enjoy those sort of evenings where you have to guts it out and the boys rely on each other to get through. So, we’ll take the win but acknowledge it was a good team opposing us.”
“I don’t care if they’re 0-4 or 4-0, to get a dubya [win] over them would mean a lot.’’
Dalton Papali’i on the Crusaders