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Young flyers primed for biggest game of the Crusaders' season - including one injury returnee

Braydon Ennor has shone for the Crusaders in the opening round of Super Rugby. (Photo by Anthony Au-Yeung/Getty Images)

The Crusaders are preparing for a historic Super Rugby final on Saturday night, when they host the Jaguares in Christchurch.

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Head Coach Scott Robertson has named a consistent run-on side from last week’s semi-final, with the exception of lock Scott Barrett and second five-eighth Ryan Crotty, who have both been ruled out of the Final with hand injuries.

?Mitchell Dunshea joins Captain Sam Whitelock as the starting locks, and Braydon Ennor slots in to the midfield alongside Jack Goodhue, in the absence of Crotty. 21-year old Will Jordan returns from injury to re-join the match day side.

Robertson said the team has built nicely throughout the week in preparation for Saturday’s Final: “This is going to be a massive challenge against a tough Jaguares side, and there has been plenty of great energy in our environment this week.

“This is the Jaguares’ first final so they’ll have plenty of motivation and will be buoyed by the support of their passionate fans. The occasion is something we’ve embraced in our group, it’s exciting and really special to be involved in a Final and to play for our friends, family and the people of the Crusaders region on Saturday night.”

Crusaders: 15 David Havili, 14 Sevu Reece, 13 Braydon Ennor, 12 Jack Goodhue, 11 George Bridge, 10 Richie Mo’unga, 9 Bryn Hall, 8 Kieran Read, 7 Matt Todd (VC), 6 Whetukamokamo Douglas, 5 Samuel Whitelock (C), 4 Mitchell Dunshea, 3 Owen Franks, 2 Codie Taylor, 1 Joe Moody.

Reserves: 16 Andrew Makalio, 17 George Bower, 18 Michael Alaalatoa, 19 Luke Romano, 20 Jordan Taufua, 21 Mitchell Drummond, 22 Mitchell Hunt, 23 Will Jordan.

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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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