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Why this semi-final is the Blues' best shot at the champs
No visiting team has won a playoff game in Christchurch, ever. 27 years of Super Rugby have provided 28 home fixtures for the Crusaders and the men in red and black have emerged victorious in each of those games. That record will again be on the line this weekend when a familiar rival ventures south for a mouth-watering semi-final.
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The Crusaders finished their quarter-final with just 13 men on the pitch, not due to ill-discipline, but injury. While some withdrawals were claimed to be precautionary with the game all but decided, there is concern the reigning champions will have to reach even further into the well in order to make up the numbers for their remaining playoff games.
The Blues are not without injury concerns of their own, Patrick Tuipolotu has been ruled out with a broken arm and Caleb Clarke was absent in their quarter-final with a quad issue.
The Crusaders though are testing their depth to a different level, 11 members of their squad are unavailable to them with the potential for that number to increase once the weekend’s toll has been fully assessed. That number includes six All Blacks.
Former gold medalist with the All Black Sevens, Karl Te Nana joined Sky’s The Breakdown panel this week and agreed with former All Black Mils Muliaina that this Blues team possesses the ability to punish teams in ways last season’s side couldn’t.
“The Blues at the moment, they’re finding ways to score and they’re quite explosive,” he said. “Very different from last season. I think the Blues have got that X-factor that they can strike from anywhere.”
While Beauden Barrett faced criticism over his from early in the season, the backline for the Blues has developed chemistry throughout the season and no one can deny the threat that right winger Mark Telea poses, having scored 12 tries this season – equalling a Blues record.
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Adding to the challenge for the Crusaders will be the Blues’ new kicking tactics, which include the long-range boot of Zarn Sullivan. The expected Christchurch conditions could well make for a kick-heavy night and while the Crusaders are used to getting the upper hand in the kicking duels, they’ll be without one of their top options.
“It was minus two (degrees) when we left this morning,” Jeff Wilson told The Breakdown panel. “It’s going to be the same (on Friday).
“It’s going to be more and more difficult to play any of that expansive rugby and shifting the ball. They’re going to need to have their kicking game on point and that’s the big challenge I see for Will Jordan playing fullback for the Crusaders because Zarn Sullivan is going to do that for the Blues.
“With no David Havili to help with that load, I think that will be significant in this matchup.”
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The Crusaders lept into the lead in their quarter-final matchup with the Fijian Drua, scoring twice in the opening five minutes. Coming out of the gates strong has been a feature of the team’s winning run and Wilson expects the opening minutes to have a strong influence on the outcome of the match come Friday.
“The critical part for me will be the first 20 minutes of this game, if you step up, you stand up and you make a statement early that there’s nowhere you can dominate us, then the Blues will go a long way to winning it.”
Comments on RugbyPass
My heart is with Quins, but the head is convinced Toulouse have too much. Ntamack is back, his timing and wisdom has been missed.
1 Go to commentsWow, what a starting line up for the Sharks) Tasty up front,kremer vs Tshituka or venter …fiery ,,Lavannini ,,will he knobble etzebeth? Biggest game for belleau?
1 Go to commentsIt was rubbish to watch, Blues weren’t even present. Did what they had to do, nothing more. Should be better next week against canes.
1 Go to commentsI’ve just noticed that this match has an all-French refereeing team. Surely a game like this ought to have a neutral ref? Although looking at the BBC preview of the Saints game, Raynal is also down as reffing that - so there may be some confusion about who is reffing what.
1 Go to commentsIf Havili can play anywhere in the back line, why not first 5. #10.
11 Go to commentsThe dressing room had already left for their summer break before they ran out in Dublin that year, and that’s on the coach. Franco Smith has undoubtedly made progress, particularly their maul, developing squad players and increasing squad depth. And against a very tight budget too. That said they were too lightweight last year and got found out against both Toulon and Munster in consecutive games. Better this season so far but they’ve developed something of a slow start habit occasionally, most notably losing at home to Northampton who played them at their own game. Play offs will ultimately show whether there has been tangible progress on last year, or not…!
2 Go to commentsAustralian Rugby has been a disaster, by not incorporating learning from previous successful campaigns. QLD Reds 2011 - Waratahs 2014. Players, coaches and administrators appoint there representatives for scheduled meetings, organisation’s agreement’s assessments and correspondence. This why a unified Rugby Union under one entity works. Every Rugby nation has taken that path. Was most difficult in the Northern hemisphere with over 100 years of club rugby before the game become professional. Took a lot of humility for those unions to eventually work together.
7 Go to commentsThough Wilson’s sacking was pretty brutal, it wasn’t just down to that Leinster game; Glasgow had a lot of 2nd half collapses that season, in the URC and Europe, and only just scraped into the playoffs. Franco Smith has definitely been an improvement, some players are delivering far more than they did under Wilson.
2 Go to commentsjesus - that front 5!
1 Go to commentsShould be an absolute cracker of a game! Will be great to see DuPont & Ntamack in tandem once again🔥
1 Go to commentsBest team ever…. To have played? These guys are still pressure chokers. Came nowhere when it counted. What a joke
70 Go to commentsMusk defends anonymous terrorism, fascism, threats against individuals and children etc etc But a Rugby club account….lock ‘em up!!!
1 Go to commentsActually the era defining moment came a few years earlier. February 2002 to be precise, when Michael D Higgins as finance minister at the time introduced his sports persons tax relief bill to the dial. As the politicians of the day stated “It seems to be another daft K Club frolic born in Kildare amongst the well-paid professional jockeys with whom the Minister plays golf” and that the scheme represented “a savage uncaring vision of Ireland and one that should be condemned”. The irfu and Leinster would be nowhere near the position they are in today without this key component of the finances.
5 Go to commentsIt is crystal clear that people who make such threats on line should be tried and imprisoned. Those with responsibility in social media companies who don’t facilitate this should be convicted. In real life, I have free speech to approach someone like Reinach and verbally threaten him. I am risking a conviction or a slap but I could do it. In the old days, If someone anonymously threatened someone by letter the police would ask and use evidence from the postal system. Unlike the Post, social media companies have complete instant and legal access to the content in social media. They make money from the data, billions. Yet, they turn a blind eye to terrorism, Nazi-ism and industrial levels of threats against individuals including their address and childrens schools being published online all from ananoymous accounts not real people. They claim free speech. Free speech for anonymous trolls/voilent thugs threatening people under false names? The fault is with the perps but also social media companies who think anonymous personas posting death threats constitutes free speech.
2 Go to commentsSo if this ain’t the best Irish team ever then who exactly is? I don’t remember any other Irish team being this good & winning a series in the Land of the Long White Cloud. Yes I may rip them often for 8 X QF RWC exits & twice not even making it to the QF, but they’re a damn good team who many think can only improve, including me!
70 Go to commentsNot a squeek out of Leinster for weeks about this match. So quiet. The first team have been quitely building for this encounter under Nienaber’s direction. All fresh, all highly motivated. They are expecting a season’s best performance from Northhampton. They will match that. They will be fresher and apparently they will have 80,000 out of the 83,000 shouting for them. I do expect Northhampton to turn up big time. Not to be missed. On a tangent it is evident how the loss of a few Premiership teams has in some respect helped other Premiership teams and England. More quality over less teams makes the teams better, which has a knock on effect on England. Not the only factor contributing to England’s rise but one of them.
5 Go to commentsOur very own monster teddy bear Ox😍💪
17 Go to commentsThis is might be the most generalised, entitled, patronising, out-of-pocket cultural indictment on a group of people you’ll ever see on what is supposedly a sports publication. I can only assume the author is weak like a woman or homosexual. I’m feeling an incredible range of emotions but I am not quite sure how to express them. I might go beat up a hockey player - assuming that’s okay with Duane and the boys? 🙂
9 Go to commentsBest thing the Welsh clubs could do is apply to join Gallagher prem surely be more exciting matches for there support than they have now.
2 Go to commentsRugbyPass writers are useless! you guys should get a real job because you all suck at writing about rugby!!!
9 Go to comments