Going Deep - Scotty Stevenson
There are few teams in professional rugby that can muster the kind of roster-wide belief the Crusaders can. As head coach Scott Robertson said last week after his under-strength side strangled the life out of the Hurricanes, “We go to the well for those that dug it for us.” On Saturday night in the Hamilton drizzle, they went to the well again.
Even before the game kicked off, emotions were running high. The Crusaders had gathered early in the day at the team hotel to watch as Wyatt Crockett was presented with his 200th game jersey. It was embroidered with date and milestone and opponent and it was presented to him by his wife Jenna, because this was not about a player; it was about a family and the very fabric of the franchise.
“Jenna has been a part of this team for as long as Crocky has,” Scott Robertson said later that
evening as he talked about the presentation. “She has given us her time as much as he has.”
It had set the scene for the task ahead. The Crockett kids, Sonny and Emmett had been presented their jerseys, too. Their father’s greatest achievements, now adorned in their father’s achievements. The man of the moment was a touch speechless after that, by all accounts. Few words. A bit of dust in the room. So much on the line that night.
As a general rule, a Chiefs-Crusaders match needs no extra spice. In recent years this has become one of the marquee games of the season, purely because it is fuelled by the kind of hatred most often witnessed in divorce courts and on old episodes of Jerry Springer. Hate, at least in this context, is not a wasted emotion. Chiefs Assistant Coach and former Crusader, Tabai Matson says both sides lift their intensity in the week leading up to the clash. Both sides have used the other as equal parts irritation and aspiration.
There was no Sam Whitelock, no Ryan Crotty, no Jack Goodhue, no Jordan Taufua. All four of those players are key starters. All four are national representatives. It is not overstating things to say that most teams would struggle to plug the gaps left by those sorts of absences. The day prior to the match, Assistant Coach Brad Mooar had said, both simply and prophetically, “We’re going deeper.” And he believed it, and so did the players.
Crockett, for his part, was happy to have left any fanfare behind him at the team hotel. He was on the bench that night, with his family watching in the stands. As Matt Todd led the Crusaders onto Waikato Stadium, Crockett simply wandered down the tunnel with the other reserves, right at the back, and took his place on the pine. He would eventually enter the game in the 46th minute, right about the time the Crusaders really started to go to work. About the time depth counted for more than anything else.
When Heiden Bedwell-Curtis had crossed for the first of the Crusaders’ tries off a quick tap from Codie Taylor, it looked as if the red machine was still purring despite its replacement parts. However, the Chiefs are not the kind of team to be bullied in their backyard, and Sean Wainui scored the home side’s opening try right on quarter time. Soon after, Charlie Ngatai made the Crusaders pay for some loose transition work in midfield, kicking the ball downfield, winning a jackal on David Havili and setting up the breakdown for Luke Jacobsen to score on the right.
Up 13-10, this was the time the Chiefs needed to break the Crusaders. Instead, the Crusaders hitched up their britches and dug in; they went back to what has worked for them from the beginning of time: they went to the forwards and scored through the lineout drive. Matt Todd, the captain, eventually surfaced through a sea of shoves and pushes and acrimony to claim the score. They took a seven-point lead into halftime.
There are no guarantees on nights such as this. Not when these two teams are involved. There are too many variables, too many players who can break a game apart. Seven points is no kind of lead to hang your hat on, and perhaps that’s what the Crusaders understand better than most. When the side had found themselves down by 29 points against the Waratahs, they had gathered under the posts and talked about winning the next moment, and the moment after that, and the moment after that. They believed, as all good teams do, that if they just got their shit together, they would eat up that deficit and come out on top.
Now they clung to a lead in Hamilton as a poxy light rain fell, and they began to tick off those moments. A try after the break, a maul that grunted and ground its way upfield, a knack for the long kick and an eye for the spaces that mattered. Crockett’s early entry in the second half may have been premeditated. What better way to remind the team of what was at stake? On the park: Quinten Strange and Ethan Blackadder. Just like the 200-game veteran who now joined them they traced their roots back to the tiny town of Collingwood. This is where a young Wyatt Crockett measured himself against Ethan’s father Todd. Just how deep would you like to go?
Deeper: It was Crockett’s great friend Luke Romano who managed to put the ball down after a typically gritty Crusaders goal line siege late in the game. It stretched the lead to 14 points. A point for every season the most-capped player in Super Rugby history has been setting scrums on the training paddock at Rugby Park.
And then it was done. The Chiefs were good, but the Crusaders had gone to the well again. They stood there afterward as Jenna and Sonny and Emmett joined Crockett on the field, and the whole team gathered behind them for a photo to mark the occasion. And in that moment, a realisation: this team is more than a franchise, it is a family.
And there is nothing deeper than that.
Comments on RugbyPass
Totally deserved win for the Crusaders Far smarter than the Chiefs who seem to be avoiding the basics when it matters Hotham showed them what was missing and Hannah seems a real find - a tad light but that can be fixed over time
8 Go to commentsGreat insight into the performance culture with Sarries and I predict Christie will be a fixture in the Scotland team now for some time to come. However, he is slightly missing his own point around Scotland “being soft” when he cites physicality examples in defence of that slight. The issue is much closer to the example he referenced around feeling off before a game but being told “it doesn’t matter, you can still play well” by Farrell. Until Scotland can get their psyche in that square, they will carry on folding under extreme pressure…
1 Go to comments> We are having to adapt, evolve and innovate more than when we were in Super Rugby where there was only really one style that everybody had to play to gain the most success. Have = able to? Interesting what that one style might be? I thought SA sides still had bad tours now, or at least bad schedule, months away? Those extra few hours flights have to be a killer though, no surprise to see their sides doing so badly at the start of the season each year. I wouldn’t enjoy that unfairness as a supporter.
5 Go to commentsThe problem for NZ, and Aus, is they ripped up the SR model and lost a massive chunk of revenue that hasn’t been replaced. Don’t forget SA clubs went North because they were left with no choice, Argy unceremoniously binned and Japan cast adrift. Now SR wasn’t perfect, far from it, but they’ve jumped into something without an effective plan, so far, to replace what they’ve lost. The biggest revenue potential now lies in Japan but it won’t be easy or quick to unlock, they are incredibly insular in culture as a nation. In the meantime, there is a serious time bomb sitting under SH rugby and if it happens then the current financial challenges will look like a picnic. IF the Boks follow their provincial teams and head north then it’s revenue meltdown. Not guaranteed to happen but the status quo is a very odd hybrid, with the Boks pointing one way and the clubs pointing the other way. And for as long as that remains then the threat is real.
36 Go to commentsI think Etene has had some good tuition, likely while at the Warriors to be a professional that helped his rugby jump, but he was certainly thrown in the deep end way too early. Should have arguably 20 less SR caps, and therefor a way better record that he does at his age, but his development would have been fast tracked by the need to satiate his signing away from league. Again, credit to him and others that he has done it so well. Easy to fall over under that pressure in the big leagues like that but he kept at it when I myself wasn’t sure he was good enough.
1 Go to commentsAwesome story. I wonder what a bigger American (SA) scene might have mean for Brex.
1 Go to comments“Johnny McNicholl and the Crusaders” save a Penney. Who has been in camp this week and showed them how to play?
8 Go to commentsSo, reports of the Crusaders’ demise / terminal decline are perhaps just - slightly - premature/exaggerated…? 🤔 Will we see a deep-dive into that by the estimable Rugbypass scribes, and maybe one or two mea culpas? Thought not.
8 Go to comments1. The Chiefs are rudderless without DMac, which enhances his AB chances 2. Chiefs pack are powderpuffs. The hard men arent there anymore 3. They had their golden title chance last yr and wont threaten this yr. Gone in second round of playoffs.
8 Go to commentsHonestly, why did you have to publish such a foolish article the day they play us? 😂
36 Go to comments> They are not standalone entities. They are linked to an amateur association which holds the FFR licence that allows the professional side to compete in the league. That’s a great rule. This looks like the chicken or egg professional scenario. How long is it going to be before the club can break even (if that is even a thing in French rugby)? If the locals aren’t into well it would be good to se them drop to amateur level (is it that far?). Hope they can reset from this level and be more practical, there will be a time when they can rebuild (if France has there setup right).
1 Go to commentsWhat about changing the ball? To something heavier and more pointed that bounces unpredictably. Not this almost round football used these days.
35 Go to commentsThis 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”?
35 Go to commentsWow, didn’t realise there was such apathy to URC in SA, or by Champions Cup teams. Just read Nick’s article on Crusaders, are Sharks a similar circumstance? I think SA rugby has been far more balanced than NZs, no?
4 Go to commentsBut 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.
36 Go to commentsIt could be coincidental or prescient that the All Blacks most dominant period under Steve Hansen was when the Crusaders had their least successful period under Todd Blackadder and then the positions reversed when Razor took over the Crusaders.
36 Go to commentsDefinitely sound read everybodyexpects immediate results these days, I don't think any team would travel well at all having lost three of the most important game changers in the game,compiled with the massive injury list they are now carrying, good to see a different more in depth perspective of a coaches history.
3 Go to commentsSinckler is a really big loss for English rugby.
2 Go to commentsThanks 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
36 Go to commentsNo way. If you are trying to picture New Zealand rugby with an All Blacks mindset, there have been two factors instrumental to the decline of NZ rugby to date. Those are the horror that the Blues have become and, probably more so, the fixture that the Crusaders became. I don’t think it was healthy to have one team so dominant for so long, both for lack of proper representation of players from outside that environment and on the over reliance on players from within it. If you are another international side, like Ireland for example, sure. You can copy paste something succinct from one level to the next and experience a huge increase in standards, but ultimately you will not be maximizing it, which is what you need to perform to the level the ABs do. Added to that is the apathy that develops in the whole game as a result of one sides dominance. NZ, Super, and Championship rugby should all experience a boom as a result of things balancing out. That said, there is a lot of bad news happening in NZ rugby recently, and I’m not sure the game can be handled well enough here to postpone the always-there feeling of inevitable decline of rugby.
36 Go to comments