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'One's special, two's amazing but three, you're talking about having a dynasty'

Crusaders stalwart Kieran Read lifts the Super Rugby trophy. (Photo by Kai Schwoerer/Getty Images)

The Crusaders are losing some of the biggest names in Super Rugby next year but it hasn’t dimmed their desire to keep collecting silverware.

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Picking apart the Jaguares 19-3 in Saturday’s tense final underlined the adaptability of the 10-time champions, having ditched their early ball-in-hand approach because it didn’t suit the slippery Christchurch conditions and the tough tackling of the South Americans.

They turned instead to their own smothering defence and a reliance on pinpoint box kicks from halfback Bryn Hall, which set up the game’s only try to Codie Taylor.

Hall, one of the few non-All Blacks in the starting team, said there is every reason to believe the Crusaders can build on their current streak of three titles, even with a raft of key players and coaches moving on.

“One’s special, two’s amazing but three, you’re talking about having a dynasty,” Hall said.

There were post-game farewells for Kieran Read, Owen Franks, Ryan Crotty and Jordan Taufua, along with assistant coaches Brad Mooar and Ronan O’Gara.

Skipper Sam Whitelock won’t be seen until the 2021 campaign while coach Scott Robertson may not be back if he succeeds Steve Hansen as All Blacks coach next year.

Losing the charismatic Robertson would be a hammer blow for the Crusaders but one which Read said could still be overcome.

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The All Blacks captain made his Super Rugby debut in 2007 and said the red and black formula will keep working, regardless of the personnel.

“We’re just really well set up from the top to the bottom of this organisation,” Read said.

“It’s just great fun to turn up and go to work, and put it out here on Friday and Saturday nights.”

Robertson said victory was satisfying because it capped a finals campaign in which they were fully tested, having earlier been pushed to stave off the attack-minded approach of the Highlanders and Hurricanes.

“It felt like the last three weeks have all been finals for us,” he said.

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“We played a different team tactically in the Jaguares. We probably over-played it in the first 20 so we talked about one-pass footy.

“Let’s get boring, let’s go old school. Plug them in the corners.”

The Crusaders maintained their historically perfect record in home playoff games, having notched 24 wins.

It also stretched their competition-record winning streak in Christchurch to  31 games.

– AAP

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Flankly 1 hour 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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