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Reds vs Crusaders: the greatest game ever?

Roar Rookie
5th July, 2011
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Roar Rookie
5th July, 2011
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3993 Reads

Super Rugby finals are momentous occasions, but no final in Super Rugby’s history has been as monumental as Saturday night’s clash at Suncorp Stadium.

It is, perhaps, a match made in heaven. The top-placed teams from the Australian and New Zealand conferences, the first and third-placed teams overall, will contest the Super Rugby’s inaugural title.

The Queensland Reds, who find themselves in unfamiliar finals territory, face the Canterbury Crusaders, who are regular revellers in Super Rugby’s winning circle.

Despite the Crusaders’ dominance over the Reds in past years, it is a mouth-watering clash for any rugby fan. Such history, though, is reminiscent of the Biblical battle between David and Goliath.

The teams have met 17 times in Super Rugby’s history and the Crusaders have won all but five.

10 of those fixtures have been played in Brisbane and the Reds have won just four.

The seven-time champions from Christchurch will take confidence from such statistics, as they will inevitably endeavour to bring joy to the earthquake-ravished city and people of Christchurch.

The Reds, too, will be running high on emotions as they seek to restore pride and unity in the cyclone and flood-affected state of Queensland and win their first Super Rugby title since 1995.

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Crusaders’ five-eighth Daniel Carter has expressed just how much it would mean for his side to claim an eighth title earlier this week. Carter will no doubt be at his best on Saturday night after such remarks and he will need to be.

In an electrifying matchup, Carter, aptly heralded as currently the world’s best fly-half, will face arguably the most entertaining fly-half in the game, Quade Cooper.

The Queensland maestro will hope to stand in Carter’s way, and so too will 21 year old Jono Lance who has been handed the task of taming Sonny Bill Williams.

Queensland will be boosted by Rod Davies’ return from injury, and will hope his immediately-found form in last weekend’s semi-final demolition of the Blues will continue against the Crusaders.

Saturday night’s encounter will be Super Rugby at its finest: Australia’s best versus New Zealand’s best.

Greg Growden wrote in the lead up to the Reds/Crusaders fixture earlier in the season that it was to be a “mini Bledisloe Cup”.

Maybe it was, but Saturday night’s re-match of the Week 15 encounter will be nothing short of a repeat of Australia and New Zealand’s 2000 Bledisloe Cup match, billed as the greatest game of rugby ever played.

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