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Massive milestone for departing Crusaders loose forward

Crusaders flanker Jordan Taufua is set to make his 100th appearance for the for the club

Crusaders head coach Scott Robertson has named an unchanged side from the team that took the field in their 38-14 Super Rugby quarter-final victory over the Highlanders.

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The Canterbury-based franchise is preparing for its semi-final on Saturday against the Hurricanes and their matchday 23 includes 27-year old loose forward Jordan Taufua, who has been named on the bench and is poised to make what would be his 100th appearance for the Crusaders.

Taufua will depart New Zealand at the end of the season to take up a contract in England with Leicester. Tim Perry, who was ruled out of last week’s quarter-final, is once again unavailable for this match due to an arm injury.

Robertson said the team has shown the Hurricanes plenty of respect with its preparations for the semi-final: “We have really enjoyed this week. The group came in excited to have earned another opportunity to play at home and we’ve prepared accordingly for this quality Hurricanes side.

“They are well-coached with genuine attacking threats across the park, so we know there is a massive challenge ahead of us this weekend.

“We’re also really proud of Jordan, who’ll become the 18th Crusader to play 100 games for the club. He has been a loyal Crusader for a number of years now and sharing this milestone with him on Saturday night will certainly add to the occasion for our squad and our fans.

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“The game has been well supported and we’re going to need every single one of our fans to get behind this team on Saturday night – we look forward to seeing them there in numbers!”

CRUSADERS: 15 David Havili, 14 Sevu Reece, 13 Jack Goodhue, 12 Ryan Crotty, 11 George Bridge, 10 Richie Mo’unga, 9 Bryn Hall, 8 Kieran Read, 7 Matt Todd, 6 Whetukamokamo Douglas, 5 Samuel Whitelock (c), 4 Scott Barrett, 3 Owen Franks, 2 Codie Taylor, 1 Joe Moody. Reps: 16 Andrew Makalio, 17 George Bower, 18 Michael Alaalatoa, 19 Luke Romano, 20 Jordan Taufua*, 21 Mitchell Drummond, 22 Mitchell Hunt, 23 Braydon Ennor.

WATCH: Ryan Crotty’s media session ahead of Crusaders’ Super Rugby semi-final showdown versus the Hurricanes

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Flankly 2 hours ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

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