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Stats show where the Crusaders 'got their mojo back'

Rivez Reihana of the Crusaders. Photo by Kai Schwoerer/Getty Images

The Crusaders are back in the win column after a historic drought to begin the 2024 Super Rugby Pacific season.

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The reigning champions produced a 37-26 win against their 2023 final opponents, the Chiefs, to send a clear message that they may be down, but they are not out.

The hard work is only just beginning though as we approach the midpoint of the season and the team still occupies 11th place on the competition table.

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For the win to transfer into momentum, Rob Penney’s men will have to prove that their round six performance was the rule rather than the exception.

“There were a lot of positives that they were able to accumulate during the duration of that match, “Former Crusaders halfback Bryn Hall told the Aotearoa Rugby Pod. “At set piece, operating at 13 out of 15 is a lot higher success rate than previous weeks.

“It’s probably for the first time this season they won the penalty count; only two in the first half which is pretty important to accumulating that 22 points in that first half.

“I think defenders beaten, 13; the Chiefs had 15 obviously but then 10 linebreaks compared to seven from the Chiefs, we just haven’t been accustomed to seeing that from their attack throughout the year. It’s been clunky.

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“To have those kinds of numbers in the first half to build those points and have some confidence was really good.

“But, I think also defensively, yes they operated at 86 per cent but I think the amount of high line-speed pressure that they were able to put on the Chiefs consistently, getting them to turn in was a lot. If you look at (Johnny) McNicholl’s try, the lead could have gone from 14 to seven points but he’s in that space.

“A lot of times in that game their wingers and even their midfielders were going hard out the back to try and nullify that Chiefs attack, so a lot of positives.

“The good thing for them now is to be able to go to the bye week and they’re going to get the cavalry back and hopefully now with four Australian teams coming next, they can accumulate some points moving forward and hopefully, sneak into that top eight.”

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That cavalry includes names like Ethan Blackadder, Fergus Burke and Christian Lio-Willie, all expected to be available for the Crusaders’ next contest against the Waratahs in round eight.

With the run home after the bye seeing the Crusades face far more teams nearer to the bottom of the table than the top, there are plenty of chances for them to rack up wins and push for the playoffs, something Hall’s co-panellist, former All Black James Parsons, predicted would happen given the weekend’s performance.

“I don’t think the Chiefs played too poorly, I think the Crusaders just got their mojo back,” Parsons added.

“They got their kicking strategy on point. As Bryn mentioned, at set piece, it was at 46 per cent against the Blues, 87 per cent this week. I know they’re a 100 per cent team but 87 per cent is a hell of a lot better than where they were the week prior.

“And then I just think they were back to their clinical self. For so long we’ve talked about these 22-meter visits and we’ve used the Crusaders as the benchmark. Five tries out of eight visits to the 22 this week against a really strong Chiefs side, let’s not underestimate that. Yes, they were missing Damian McKenzie but pretty much everyone else was there ready to rock and roll.

“I think it’s the sort of game that will give the Crusaders confidence. They’re not going to have the home run like they used to, they’re going to more likely do it away from home (in the playoffs) but I’m pretty sure every team that finishes higher up doesn’t want to get them.”

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1 Comment
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Graham 263 days ago

Great article and comments by Bryn Hall and James Parson’s on the Crusaders.

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JW 5 hours ago
Does South Africa have a future in European competition?

I rated Lowe well enough to be an AB. Remember we were picking the likes of George Bridge above such players so theres no disputing a lot of bad decisions have been made by those last two coaches. Does a team like the ABs need a finicky winger who you have to adapt and change a lot of your style with to get benefit from? No, not really. But he still would have been a basic improvement on players like even Savea at the tail of his career, Bridge, and could even have converted into the answer of replacing Beauden at the back. Instead we persisted with NMS, Naholo, Havili, Reece, all players we would have cared even less about losing and all because Rieko had Lowe's number 11 jersey nailed down.


He was of course only 23 when he decided to leave, it was back in the beggining of the period they had started retaining players (from 2018 onwards I think, they came out saying theyre going to be more aggressive at some point). So he might, all of them, only just missed out.


The main point that Ed made is that situations like Lowe's, Aki's, JGP's, aren't going to happen in future. That's a bit of a "NZ" only problem, because those players need to reach such a high standard to be chosen by the All Blacks, were as a country like Ireland wants them a lot earlier like that. This is basically the 'ready in 3 years' concept Ireland relied on, versus the '5 years and they've left' concept' were that player is now ready to be chosen by the All Blacks (given a contract to play Super, ala SBW, and hopefully Manu).


The 'mercenary' thing that will take longer to expire, and which I was referring to, is the grandparents rule. The new kids coming through now aren't going to have as many gp born overseas, so the amount of players that can leave with a prospect of International rugby offer are going to drop dramatically at some point. All these kiwi fellas playing for a PI, is going to stop sadly.


The new era problem that will replace those old concerns is now French and Japanese clubs (doing the same as NRL teams have done for decades by) picking kids out of school. The problem here is not so much a national identity one, than it is a farm system where 9 in 10 players are left with nothing. A stunted education and no support in a foreign country (well they'll get kicked out of those countries were they don't in Australia).


It's the same sort of situation were NZ would be the big guy, but there weren't many downsides with it. The only one I can think was brought up but a poster on this site, I can't recall who it was, but he seemed to know a lot of kids coming from the Islands weren't really given the capability to fly back home during school xms holidays etc. That is probably something that should be fixed by the union. Otherwise getting someone like Fakatava over here for his last year of school definitely results in NZ being able to pick the cherries off the top but it also allows that player to develop and be able to represent Tonga and under age and possibly even later in his career. Where as a kid being taken from NZ is arguably going to be worse off in every respect other than perhaps money. Not going to develop as a person, not going to develop as a player as much, so I have a lotof sympathy for NZs case that I don't include them in that group but I certainly see where you're coming from and it encourages other countries to think they can do the same while not realising they're making a much worse experience/situation.

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