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Five changes for the Crusaders to play the Force

Crusaders' Richie Mo'unga (2nd R) celebrates scoring a try with teammate Braydon Ennor (2nd L) during the Super Rugby match between the Canterbury Crusaders and the Otago Highlanders at the AAMI Park in Melbourne on March 3, 2023. (Photo by William WEST / AFP via Gettys Images)

Crusaders head coach Rob Penney has made five changes to his team to play the Western Force at home in Christchurch on Saturday afternoon.

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After an impressive 43-19 win over the Queensland Reds, they have decided to switch up their back row while All Black Braydon Ennor returns at centre.

Last week’s bench selection Corey Kellow has been moved to the starting side at blindside, replacing Cullen Grace, while Tom Christie returns to the team at openside replacing Ethan Blackadder, who is named in the reserves.

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In other changes, young flyer Macca Springer gets the chance on the left wing to start.

“Tom’s [Christie] been a part of the Crusaders through a magnificent run of championship winning series and he epitomises a Crusader man’s values and with his work ethic,” says Penney. 

“We are very fortunate with the calibre of the backs that we have here, and Braydon [Ennor] is just another piece to the puzzle, he’s got some unique abilities which will be awesome for us this week,” says Penney.  

“Ball in play is consistently higher, it’s an awesome spectacle – Super Rugby Pacific has been wonderful this year, but the fatigue factor is massive. Listening to the All Blacks coming back in – they’re all commenting on how tough it is.

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“The outcome of that has caused fatigue which causes more opportunities for attack.” 

Head-to-Head

Last 5 Meetings

Wins
4
Draws
0
Wins
1
Average Points scored
40
24
First try wins
60%
Home team wins
80%

Crusaders team to face the Force:    

  1. Tamaiti Williams  
  2. Codie Taylor  
  3. Fletcher Newell  
  4. Scott Barrett  
  5. Antonio Shalfoon  
  6. Corey Kellow 
  7. Tom Christie 
  8. Christian Lio-Willie  
  9. Kyle Preston  
  10. Taha Kemara  
  11. Macca Springer 
  12. David Havili  
  13. Braydon Ennor 
  14. Sevu Reece 
  15. Will Jordan 

Impact 

  1. Ioane Moananu
  2. George Bower 
  3. Seb Calder
  4. Tahlor Cahill 
  5. Ethan Blackadder
  6. Mitchell Drummond 
  7. James O’Connor 
  8. Levi Aumua

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Comments

7 Comments
G
GP 43 days ago

Wonderful to see Braydon Ennor back in a Crusaders starting jersey. It will be great to see on Sunday. It will be a welcome return. As Rob Penney said, Tom Christie , epitomizes the Crusaders roll your sleeves up ethos , of doing the hard work. A never say die red and black man through and through.

S
SC 43 days ago

I do like the midfield combo of Havili and Ennor. Dallas Macleod has done very little since his breakthough season in 2023 and Levi Aumua has been a massive disappointment since he signed from Moana Pacifika.


Aumua is much better suited as a crashball running 12 in the Bundee Aki mold as he lacks the pace to defend at 13 nor beat a defender on the outside.

M
MM 43 days ago

Havili has done very little as well……

S
SC 43 days ago

One too many changes to the back row. With Cullen Grace injured, starting Cory Kellow at blindside and having Tom Christie coming off the bench was enough of a change to the back row. Christie offers nothing as a ball carrier and Crusaders already losing the hard running in the tight of Grace, they can’t afford to lose Blackadder’s carrying too.

J
JWH 43 days ago

tom Christie’s great. Idk what ur on abt. We don’t need a ball carrier, we alr have Lio-willie, Barrett, Shalfoon, and Kellow.

l
lK 43 days ago

👍🏼

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J
JW 1 hour ago
How 'misunderstood' Rassie Erasmus is rolling back the clock

One of the real-world spin-offs of Rassie’s selection policy was glossed over in the statement ‘it discriminates against backs; our game is for all shapes and sizes’. The truth is exactly the opposite.

I think you misconstrue his point for this story.

The biggest differential between the size of the forwards and the size of the backs is France at +29kg per man in favour of the forwards.

This is exactly his point that you’re agreeing with, ALL the fowards are big (hence the discrepancy).


You didn’t really make a good point yourself. A Data Analysts recently came in with an article about Super Rugby and was the first to correctly use Median instead of Mean as the basis of his prognosis. That’s what this article is missing. French forwards in their own would also have the widest margin of variance, with big and small forwards. French rugby, and their packs are frequently misidentified as large (again in just a recent article last week), when they actually have quite the tradition for athletic forwards as well.


Back back to the real issue you have tried to highlight, much like League went, the game now is moving all forwards towards the same size and shape. The topic of all sizes and shapes is not for the 75’s and the 140’s to get representation, it is that 90 to 110 range where everyone should probably be for the best rugby. Hell the most popular form of rugby now in NZ is the u85’s I think, and you have everyone in it, short f/r, bean pole locks, explosive 2nd5’s. I think there’s some allowance but everyone else would be between that 80 to 85 range I reckon.


I think it goes back to Grant Batty. Really enjoyed the explosion of all the little guys in Super Rugby this year as well, some of the best to watch. I’m not enjoying the discussion that stand out fowards in the competition like Du’Plessis Kirifi or Ioane Moananu are too small (read short) for International rugby forwards, so thank you very much Nick but you can kindly decease (FRO) with suggesting you can only be a forward if you’re 120kgs.

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