Pundits still can't bring themselves to rule out another Crusaders title

Pundits have suggested this may be the worst Crusaders team in the club’s history, but also refuse to count the team out when it comes to the business end of the season.

The Crusaders host the Chiefs this week with the threat of a sixth straight loss lingering, but plenty of unwanted history has already been referred to the record books this year.

In their loss to the Blues last weekend, the Crusaders ended a decade-long winning streak at Eden Park and relinquished what had been a suffocating grip on the rivalry’s stake.

As the team’s results worsen, the intimidation factor that has been so present for so long also decays. For the Blues, the win helps forge a new pathway into the future of Super Rugby, one without the dominance of one team.

“It wasn’t a monkey (on their back) for the first 40 (minutes), it was a gorilla,” Sir John Kirwin said on The Breakdown when asked how good it felt for the Blues to get the result. “And both sides played like it.

“For me, both teams were nervous. I’ve never seen a Crusaders side this poor. You cannot lose that many line-outs.

“Normally, you’d think they’d (the Blues) be way more dominant in the first half, but it was the second half where they came out and were just very good for that 40.”

Nine line-outs were lost by the Crusaders on their own throw, but that was only one of the headline figures to come from the match. A total of 44 missed tackles also exemplified the Crusaders’ uncharacteristic struggles.

There are a number of factors the pundits could attribute the Crusaders’ drastic turn in form to, but another former All Black put it candidly.

“If you put these two teams side-by-side on a piece of paper, there was only one result in this game,” Jeff Wilson added. “Pure and simple.

“There are All Blacks in that Blues forward pack; Patrick Tuipulotu came back, Ofa Tu’ungafasi, you’ve got Akira Ioane, you’ve got Hoskins Sotutu, Dalton Papali’i, the list goes on.

“This wasn’t a contest on paper that the Crusaders were ever going to win. If Levi Aumua had scored that try – it was a remarkable piece of defence from Caleb Clarke to get back for it – it would have closed the gap but I don’t think the Crusaders could have come back and won.

“Let’s be honest, we had a 22-year-old hooker throwing to two 21-year-old locks, calling the lineouts, that’s why it’s misfiring. Up against a Blues team, this wasn’t even close.”

Looking ahead, beyond the Chiefs, the Crusaders have a bye, then contests against the Waratahs, Force, Rebels and Reds. That’s a run of games Wilson expected the team to pick up some wins, if not make a clean sweep.

The pundit pointed out that it took five wins for the Reds to qualify for the playoffs last year, and if that were to be the golden number again this year, then that stretch of games would prove pivotal for the Crusaders’ playoff hopes.

By the time the playoffs come around, it could be a very different-looking XV that takes the field for the Crusaders.

Names like Tamaiti Williams, Codie Taylor, Scott Barrett, Quinten Strange, Ethan Blackadder, Fergus Burke and possibly Leigh Halfpenny could feature for the team, having played little or no minutes so far this season.

Wilson was adamant they could make for a nightmare quarter-final opponent.

“If they snuck in, if they found a way to get the five wins they need, you don’t want to play that team at full strength. You don’t want that game.”