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Crusaders fire back as tetchy war of words with Lions escalates ahead of Super XV final

There appears to be no love lost between the Crusaders and the Lions ahead of this weekend’s Super XV final.

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The Lions were the first to throw a barb over the perceived cheating tactics employed by their New Zealand opponents, with head coach Syws de Bruin calling for the referee Angus Gardner to be on high alert over issues at scrum time and the offside line.

“Going through their [Crusaders’] clips, there are a lot of stuff they get away with‚ more than other teams get away with.

“I will have a talk [to the match officials] about that.

“We need a fair deal. All we ask is just a fair deal. I hope we’ll get it.”

“There’s a lot of things they get away with, more than other teams get away with – like the hit on the left-hand side on the loosehead,”

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And it appears that the Crusaders have taken the bait, particularly over loosehead Joe Moody.

Assistant coach Jason Ryan on Friday launched a staunch defence of his player “I have heard it all before and it always comes up just before, usually, when we name Joe Moody – just because he is the best in the world.”

“All I know that is when Joe is at his best, there are not may tighthead props, if any, that can hold him down.

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“It is more than just Joe. We have to back that our strength as an eight will be good enough.”

And Ryan unloaded a cutting observation of his own, on Lions tighthead Ruan Dreyer.

“[We] are going up against one of the most penalised tightheads in Super Rugby for two years running. We have got our plan, we know what we want to do. We just want to hit square, we want play channel one, that is what we have done all year and get the ball to the backs.”

The stats appear to back up Ryan somewhat, he’s been pinged by the referee 19 times in 17 Super Rugby games this season. The contest between Moody and Dreyer may be one for referee Gardner and his assistants Glen Jackson and Nic Berry to closely monitor.

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Nickers 28 minutes ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

I thought we made a lot of progress against that type of defence by the WC last year. Lots of direct running and punching holes rather than using width. Against that type of defence I think you have to be looking to kick on first phase when you have front foot ball which we did relatively successfully. We are playing a lot of rugby behind the gain line at the moment. They are looking for those little interchanges for soft shoulders and fast ball or off loads but it regularly turns into them battering away with slow ball and going backwards, then putting in a very rushed kick under huge pressure.


JB brought that dimension when he first moved into 12 a couple of years ago but he's definitely not been at his best this year. I don't know if it is because he is being asked to play a narrow role, or carrying a niggle or two, but he does not look confident to me. He had that clean break on the weekend and stood there like he was a prop who found himself in open space and didn't know what to do with the ball. He is still a good first phase ball carrier though, they use him a lot off the line out to set up fast clean ball, but I don't think anyone is particularly clear on what they are supposed to do at that point. He was used really successfully as a second playmaker last year but I don't think he's been at that role once this year. He is a triple threat player but playing a very 1 dimensional role at the moment. He and Reiko have been absolutely rock solid on defence which is why I don't think there will be too much experimentation or changes there.

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