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Crusaders captain Christie urges side to 'get up to the level of Sevu Reece'
By Ben Smith
Crusaders captain Tom Christie has urged his side to ‘get up the level of Sevu Reece’ in order to make a playoff push after going down 37-15 to the Western Force in Perth.
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The Force beat the Crusaders for the first time in over a decade with a comprehensive showing, going into the sheds up 16-5 at halftime despite an early Crusaders try to Levi Aumua.
Despite two tries to Sevu Reece and George Bell, the boot of Wallaby Ben Donaldson kept pushing the lead ahead before a final Force flurry in the last quarter took the game away. The home side put together three tries from the rolling maul that stunned the Crusaders’ pack.
Captain Christie put the loss down to “too many errors” but said he holds strong belief in the squad to be able to turn the problem areas around.
“That one hurts,” Christie put it bluntly to Stan Sport.
“To answer your question, we made a lot of errors. As we know any errors let any team into a game.
“The solution is we work on those areas, we know we can attack, we know we’ve got game breakers, and we know we can string enough phases together to score amazing tries.
“We need to work on making that happen more often and at the other end, not let them in as easily.”
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The loss put the Crusaders in 12th place at the bottom of the ladder, putting them at risk of picking up the wooden spoon.
On making finals from here, Christie conceded no other team has pulled it off before, but he didn’t want the team to concern themselves on where they sit on the table.
“To be honest, I’m not interested in the ladder, if we start winning games then we will put ourselves in a position,” Christie said.
“Yes, it is unique, yes, no team has probably done it from here but I’ve still got full faith, full trust in out team that when we get it right, we are a dangerous team.
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“I said it a couple of weeks ago, we’ve got to get it right more often and we’ll give ourselves a chance.”
The one shining light for the Crusaders continues to be Sevu Reece who was once again a game breaker.
He provided the offload for Levi Aumua’s try and showed his power and balance to score with a one-on-one match up on the right edge in the second half.
The Crusaders captain called Reece “the best player in the country” who the team needs to follow.
“Sevu is a wonderful asset to have on this team. He’s a great man, he’s a great friend, and we value him highly as an individual.
“His rugby talent, he’s the best in the country, there’s no other way to put it. Potentially the best in this competition, he shows that week in week out.
“The rest of us need to get up to his level.”
Dissapointed that after 7 years Crusaders could not have found a coach that believed their system and improved on it. What was he expecting?
Well said Tom Christie. Sevu Reece has been so wonderful in a under performing team. His tries, his everywhere ability. I think Tom has done a sterling job as captain at a highly stressful time . Tom Christie I rate highly as a player too. But it will be great to have the regular captain Scott Barrett back , which could be this week. Scott will make a big difference.
Obviously a rebuilding process of trust and culture can is required. Happens to all rugby teams that experience internal change.
Sevu should go back to halfback, where he started in Hamilton Boys. His breaks from rucks and scrums would open defenses. He would also be a super handy bench option for the ABs and allow them to select another player, with Reece covering the back three and halfback!