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Crusaders star reveals the biggest threat to their 2022 title hopes

By Alex McLeod
(Photo by Fiona Goodall/Getty Images)

Crusaders star Bryn Hall has pinpointed his former team, the Blues, as the biggest threat to his side’s chances of winning a sixth Super Rugby title in as many years.

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The Crusaders head into next year’s inaugural edition of Super Rugby Pacific in the midst of a golden era in the Christchurch-based franchise’s glittering history.

Since taking over as the team’s head coach in 2017, Scott Robertson masterminded a hat-trick of Super Rugby titles in his first three years in charge, and followed that up with back-to-back Super Rugby Aotearoa crowns in 2020 and 2021.

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Reviewing the season-ending All Blacks loss to France and the Foster vs Robertson debate | Aotearoa Rugby Pod

He will, no doubt, be targeting a sixth piece of silverware when Super Rugby Pacific – the revamped version of the competition comprised of the 10 New Zealand and Australian teams as well as Moana Pasifika and the Fijian Drua – kicks-off in February.

In the minds of most observers, it is difficult to bet against the Crusaders from doing so given the breadth of quality and talent throughout their roster, leaving them as frontrunners to claim an unprecedented 13th championship.

However, according to Hall, the Blues present the biggest threat to their title aspirations as Auckland-based side head into the new season on the back of a breakthrough season where they won their first major accolade in 18 years.

Long heralded as Super Rugby’s perennial underachievers, the Blues got the proverbial monkey off their back by clinching the Super Rugby Trans-Tasman title in June, beating the Highlanders in front of a large crowd at Eden Park.

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In doing so, they stopped Robertson and the Crusaders from completing a Super Rugby clean sweep this year in what was – aside from their 2018 Brisbane 10s success – their first competition win since the glory days of 2003.

Most of the squad that won Super Rugby Trans-Tasman has returned to the Blues set-up under head coach Leon MacDonald, including All Blacks Rieko and Akira Ioane, Dalton Papalii, Hoskins Sotutu, Finlay Christie, Nepo Laulala, Ofa Tuungafasi and Karl Tu’inukuafe.

All eight of those players were involved with the All Blacks this year, as was mercurial first-five Beauden Barrett, who returns from Japan after a six-month sabbatical with Suntory Sungoliath in the Top League.

Last year’s standout player Caleb Clarke is also back after being lost to the All Blacks Sevens’ Olympic campaign during the Trans-Tasman leg of Super Rugby, while the Blues have landed former NRL star Roger Tuivasa-Sheck on a two-year deal.

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Other All Blacks, including prop Alex Hodgman and new lock Luke Romano, are also present in next year’s squad, which has led Hall, who played for the Blues between 2013 and 2016, to highlight them as serious contenders to win Super Rugby Pacific in 2022.

“I think all the teams are always competitive in New Zealand Super Rugby, but I do like a couple of signings the Blues have had,” Hall told the Aotearoa Rugby Pod as he pointed to the acquisition of Tuivasa-Sheck as being key for the franchise.

“We’re going to see Roger Tuivasa-Sheck come into next year, who was a great coup for the Blues, and it was unfortunate that he didn’t get to play for the Auckland team in the NPC, to be able to see him and iron out a few things and get back to playing rugby.”

Hall added that the signing of Romano, the World Cup-winning ex-All Black who he had played alongside at the Crusaders since 2017, is also significant given the Blues will be without captain Patrick Tuipulotu, who has left for a sabbatical at Toyota Verblitz.

“I think the signing of Luke Romano is a great signing by Leon MacDonald,” Hall said.

“The amount of knowledge that he brings on the field, but probably more so off the field and what he can bring for the locking companions at the Blues, is going to be massive for them.

“The facts are that they’ve lost [Gerard Cowley-Tuioti], who was massive for them last year and we thought possibly could be in that All Black frame, and Patty Tuipulotu won’t be playing as well, so any time you can add experience of a guy like Luke Romano into that environment, to be playing or to be mentoring those young guys coming through, it’s going to be really good.”

The 29-year-old Maori All Blacks representative also praised the Blues for snatching highly-touted flanker Anton Segner from under the noses of the Crusaders.

A New Zealand U20 representative this year, Segner, who was born and raised in Germany, has impressed onlookers with his superb form and rapid development while playing for Tasman in the NPC over the last two seasons.

The 20-year-old’s vast potential was initially recognised by the Crusaders as they signed him up to their academy and had him involved in pre-season training and matches at the beginning of this year.

That wasn’t enough to keep him in Christchurch, though, as the Blues pounced to hand him his first full-time Super Rugby contract.

While Segner isn’t expected to feature in the starting loose forward trio too often – the Blues are blessed in that department with Papalii, Sotutu, Akira Ioane and Tom Robinson all in the squad – Hall said it was still a fantastic signing for the Aucklanders.

“They’ve got Anton Segner, who I think’s a really young, talented kid coming through the system who has gotten away from us and has seen the light at the Blues, but he’s a young that is coming through,” Hall told the Aotearoa Rugby Pod.

“There’s a lot of flankers or loose forwards coming through in that set-up, but, a guy for the future, he’s definitely one to look out for.”

With a mix of headline names, youthful prospects and experienced campaigners competing for places in MacDonald’s first-choice lineup, Hall believes the Blues have a well-balanced squad capable of adding to the newfound succes they enjoyed this year.

“I’d say the Blues are probably sitting real pretty,” he told the Aotearoa Rugby Pod.

“For me, they’d probably be one team that I’d see thinking that they’ll go pretty close to winning the championship next year with their recruitment and the fact that they won Super Rugby [Trans-Tasman] last year.”

“You’ve got to give credit to them. They’ve got a great group, and it hasn’t just been from last year. It’s been building.

“They’ve got a really good squad and they’re getting guys like Luke Romano, even Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, who’s obviously come from league, and Beauden Barrett, who’s back as well and playing pretty good footy, so all is sitting pretty for the Blues coming into 2022.”

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Jon 5 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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j
john 7 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

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A
Adrian 9 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

30 Go to comments
T
Trevor 12 hours ago
Will forgotten Wallabies fit the Joe Schmidt model?

Thanks Brett.. At last a positive article on the potential of Wallaby candidates, great to read. Schmidt’s record as an international rugby coach speaks for itself, I’m somewhat confident he will turn the Wallaby’s fortunes around …. on the field. It will be up to others to steady the ship off the paddock. But is there a flaw in my optimism? We have known all along that Australia has the players to be very competitive with their international rivals. We know that because everyone keeps telling us. So why the poor results? A question that requires a definitive answer before the turn around can occur. Joe Schmidt signed on for 2 years, time to encompass the Lions tour of 2025. By all accounts he puts family first and that’s fair enough, but I would wager that his 2 year contract will be extended if the next 18 months or so shows the statement “Australia has the players” proves to be correct. The new coach does not have a lot of time to meld together an outfit that will be competitive in the Rugby Championship - it will be interesting to see what happens. It will be interesting to see what happens with Giteau law, the new Wallaby coach has already verbalised that he would to prefer to select from those who play their rugby in Australia. His first test in charge is in July just over 3 months away .. not a long time. I for one wish him well .. heaven knows Australia needs some positive vibes.

21 Go to comments
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