1
No excuses from injury-riddled Crusaders with history on their side
Scott Robertson has backed his injury-hit Canterbury Crusaders to “rise to the occasion” against the Auckland Blues after losing Ethan Blackadder and lock Zach Gallagher for Friday’s Super Rugby Pacific semi-final.
ADVERTISEMENT
In his first match since March, All Blacks flanker Blackadder lasted only a few minutes in the quarter-final win over Fijian Drua before limping off with a quadriceps injury.
Robertson confirmed Blackadder would join a raft of All Blacks ruled out for the rest of the Crusaders’ bid for a seventh championship trophy in seven years.
“We really feel for him, he trained so hard to get back,” Robertson told New Zealand media on Wednesday.
Gallagher injured a calf against the Drua, leaving the defending champions short in their second-row stocks, with All Blacks lock Sam Whitelock still sidelined.
Captain Scott Barrett and Quinten Strange will start in the second row, with Dominic Gardiner covering lock from the bench in the matchday squad named on Wednesday.
The Crusaders’ injury woes have boosted the Blues’ chances of ending the hosts’ run of 28 playoff wins in Christchurch.
ADVERTISEMENT
But outgoing coach Robertson backed his team to stand up.
“I think any Crusaders team that’s named will rise up to the occasion, it’s going to be a hell of a weekend, it’s got that feeling about it, hasn’t it?” he said.
“It’s a physical game, we’re going to get injuries … you don’t want to start getting in the excuse bin.”
All Blacks flyhalf Richie Mo’unga, who suffered cramp against Drua and exited early, retains the No.10 jersey against a Blues team in far better health after a dominant quarter-final win over the NSW Waratahs.
All Black Caleb Clarke returns to the left wing after recovering from an ankle injury, joining a nearly full-strength Blues line-up.
ADVERTISEMENT
The winner of Friday’s clash will meet either the Waikato Chiefs or the ACT Brumbies in the final. The Chiefs host the Brumbies in Hamilton on Saturday.
The Blues ended an 18-year losing streak in Christchurch last year against the Crusaders but then lost the championship decider 21-7 at home to Robertson’s side.
The Crusaders have since resumed their dominance, winning home and away against the Blues this year.
“We know we’re going down into enemy territory and are prepared to face the music,” said Blues captain Dalton Papali’i.
Comments on RugbyPass
I am really looking forward to Leigh Halfpenny playing his first Super rugby game for the Crusaders Playing a long side his former Welsh and Scarlets team mate Johnny McNicoll.Johnny has been playing great, back in a Crusaders jersey.The attack has strengthened big time. Also looking forward to David Havili at 10. David is a class act, it also allows Dallas McLeod to remain at 12. A good thing.
1 Go to commentsIf he had stopped insisting on playing in the backrow, instead of wing, where everyone told him he should, he would have been a Bok years ago….
11 Go to comments‘Salads don’t win scrums’ 😂 I love that.
19 Go to commentsCan’t wait for the article that talks about misogyny in Ireland. Somehow.
16 Go to commentsI would like to see a rule change, when the attacking team is held up over the try line, by allowing the defensive team to restart a goal line drop out releases the pressure for the defensive team, but what if the attacking team had to restart a tap 5m out from the defensive team it gives the attacking team to apply more pressure, there are endless options for the attacking side and it will keep the fans in suspence.
2 Go to commentsLess modern South African males predictably triggered.
16 Go to commentsMy 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
84 Go to commentsMusk defends anonymous terrorism, fascism, threats against individuals and children etc etc But a Rugby club account….lock ‘em up!!!
2 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 comments