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Sharks versus Crusaders: An objective preview

The Crusaders should have no problem overcoming the Blues in Round 14. (AAP Image/Paul Miller)
Expert
24th July, 2014
42

The Crusades were seen by the European participants as liberation and purification missions. The trek from the west of Europe through Turkey to Palestine was arduous, to say the least, and waiting for them in the ‘Holy Lands’ was every type of pestilence, hardship, and challenge.

Clothed in hot armour, restricted in tactics by their heavy combat training and weaponry, they sometimes struggled when lured into fluid battle zones.

Siege warfare was their bread and butter; as well as shock clashes between direct warrior groups. Inherited from the Greek hoplites and Roman legionnaires, the crusaders could mount a cavalry charge that no force in Palestine could endure.

The best defences mounted by the locals against the crusaders’ might were environmental: shipwreck, banditry, disease, heat, poison, and the lack of supply chains and medicine.

This weekend, the roles are reversed.

The Sharks are swimming against the tide of history; they will lay siege to Christchurch, and try to sack the Crusaders in their own home. The cold castle is protected by a sheriff who is related to the defenders, and laying in wait for the heathens from Africa: King Richard, Prince Daniel, Lord Kieren, and in the front row, Franks.

They say this counter-crusade is doomed. A fools’ errand. Bismarck du Plessis and his pious beasts should go home. They will never breach the walls. They cannot leap the moat.

Their trebuchet man, Francois Steyn, is tired. General Patrick Lambie is not up to this level. Yes, they have heavy cavalry: Willem Alberts, Jean Deysel, Marcell Coetzee, du Plessis, and Steyn, but the architect of their battle plan, Jake White, is said to be approaching these walls with too much caution.

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Let’s compare the 2014 campaigns of these armies.

They are even in offloads (171 completed by the Crusaders; 172 by the Sharks).

The Sharks have beaten 19 more defenders (Alberts and Bismarck and Deysel plough through tackles); but made 36 fewer clean breaks (they don’t seek space).

They have committed precisely the same amount of handling errors: 196. They knock on at the same rate (177-173).

The Sharks kick much more than the Crusaders (527-446).

The Crusaders steal more lineout ball (25-22); but both are adept at that deadly skill. They both steal about the same amount of turnover ball.

The Crusaders have scored more tries (39) than the Sharks (32).

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Crucially, the Sharks have conceded 34 more penalties, and have been yellow and red carded more.

However, when they fought last, all those statistics held true, but the Sharks still sacked Christchurch, and drank all the beer.

Will history be told the way the soothsayers predict? Or will the foreign army reign supreme?

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