I do worry seeing the Crusaders get manhandled by Moana Pasifika

I meant to write about Moana Pasifika this week.

Well, not so much them. More the Crusaders side that they humbled at home last Saturday.

It was a match that, to me, was emblematic of how far New Zealand rugby has fallen in the last few years.

Moana Pasifika beat the Crusaders in the same manner many test teams have beaten the All Blacks from about 2017 onwards.

You run harder, you tackle harder, you attack the breakdown harder and then you watch the panic set in.

Player Dominant Tackles

1

Feleti Sae-Ta'ufo'ou

3

2

Cullen Grace

2

3

Ethan Blackadder

2

The Crusaders, as many a recent All Black team has done, responded by trying to go around Moana Pasifika. The more fruitless that endeavour became, the more desperate the Crusaders got and the more errors they committed.

I was heartened in 2024 by how robust the All Blacks eventually became. They learned to match the physicality of opponents such as England and Ireland, prospering as a result.

But when I see a team as good as the Crusaders get manhandled by Moana Pasifika, I do worry.

This is a team, particularly in the pack, full of All Blacks and proven Super Rugby performers. To watch the way a pretty limited Moana Pasifika team put them under pressure suggested to me that the soft underbelly in our rugby persists.

I hope to be proven wrong in that, but it was a conclusion I couldn’t escape on Saturday night.

Unfortunately, those concerns are superseded by news of the Hurricanes’ financial situation.

They’re in the midst of a significant capital raise, as high costs and dwindling returns create headaches that would once have seemed unimaginable.

I was on the ground staff, at what’s now Sky Stadium, when it opened. There wasn’t a blade of grass in the place when we started, nor a yellow seat to be seen.

Before long there were seats aplenty, but none unoccupied. Friday and Saturday nights at ‘the stadium’ were the hottest ticket in town, regardless of how the Hurricanes were performing on the park.

The annual sevens tournament became a licence for businesses across Wellington to print money and the good times seemed as if they would last forever.

I can remember the day my colleagues and I on the ground staff were told a VIP was coming. Word soon got around that it was Jonah Lomu and that he was about to sign for the Hurricanes.

Years later I was in the press box to cover Super Rugby finals, as fans came out in all weathers to try and cheer their team to a maiden title.

I was there the day it was announced the Hurricanes were going into private ownership, which would ensure the franchise’s on and off-field success for decades to come.

Like many Wellingtonians, I had loved Athletic Park but soon had to concede that the new waterfront stadium was indeed the jewel in the ‘Coolest Little Capital in the World’s’ crown.

It didn’t matter if it was football, AFL, cricket, rugby league; fans would flock to the stadium to watch anything.

I want Wellington and Hurricanes rugby to succeed. I want the stadium to be full and for the city to prosper as a result.

I hope this $1 million capital raise by the Hurricanes can hasten a return to the times many of us remember so well.