Crusaders tear Reds a new one

On Saturday night the Crusaders tore open the Reds until they’d exposed their soft underbelly in a ferocious display of dominant rugby. In every phase of the game their play was clinical and dominant.

The main point of difference was in the forward pack, where the Crusaders continually picked their spots to ruin the Reds at the ruck and seemed to always find a way over the advantage line.

At ruck time, on defence the Crusaders would send no one in there at all and then suddenly pile through with five people to turn over the ball.

This meant the Reds were able to retain the ball for continuous phases – more than the Crusaders – but couldn’t gain any momentum because the defensive line was always well populated and set.

Whenever the Reds weren’t perfect in their body positioning in the tackle or they didn’t secure the ruck quickly the Crusaders would pounce, pouring four of five low, tightly bound forwards over the ball like an avalanche.

This proved irresistible to all night, and was replicated by the Crusaders on every phase of their own possession, leading to an 11 to one ruck turnover stat in favour of the home side.

That kind of ruck dominance meant Will Genia, and Quade Cooper as a knock on, were reduced to being spectators of a bloody massacre, rather than having much opportunity to influence the outcome of the match.

When the forwards have not committed more than one single player to the tackle or breakdown area for phases in a row, there just isn’t enough space for even the most attacking players to make much headway.

At a few points in the match the Reds tried to use the pick-and-drive to some success, and it definitely should have been used more often. Forcing the first and second defender into action is key when this type of defence is being utilised, otherwise there will never be space out wider (and there wasn’t).

When running the ball the Crusaders were able to poke their heads through the line by choosing well-supported carriers. The push from the pod supporters meant runners made it past the advantage line more often than not and was the source of all their attacking momentum.

The only real exclusion to that rule was the valiant Liam Gill occasionally belting a runner behind the line. The frustrating result of that on two occasions were Crusaders breaks for scores as the rest of the Reds pack stood around watching, leaving yawning gaps in the middle of the park.

The likes of Sam and George Whitelock, Kieran Read and Owen Franks scored a huge victory over their Reds counter-parts.

Dominance up-front is essential to victory in rugby. It’s such an old saying but it’s proved true again and again every weekend throughout winter, from suburban parks to floodlit stadiums hosting qualifying finals.

Much of this game reminded me quite vividly of the Reds semi-final loss to the Sharks last year at Suncorp.

In that match the Sharks also made a tactical decision not to commit many to each ruck but had a sixth-sense on which rucks to attack and did so with accuracy and in numbers.

Similarly, the Reds weren’t able to gain a foot-hold and didn’t get into the match until it was far too late.

As the Sharks did, the Crusaders were clinical and almost cold-heartedly ruthless on attack.

There’s still no better fly-half in world rugby than Dan Carter, and one of the main reasons for that is his ability to take on the line and also pass to the right option late.

Option-taking and being close to the line were most obvious on his pass to Ryan Crotty for their first try, but were on display all night in general play. He revelled in the space and the runners off him in turn found room to move.

When looking at the full page of player stats for the match, the figures that stand out most are these: 12 runs for 116m and nine runs for 107 metres.

Those are the figures for the Crusaders’ wingers, Zac Guilford and Tom Marshall. Both had strong games and got more involved than the Reds back three.

One of the major repeat occurrences all match was the Reds retaining possession in their own end, then kicking for territory but not putting the ball out or chasing effectively. Because of this the Crusader’s wingers ran off Israel Dagg and brought the ball back near half way all night.

A flaw that hasn’t been discussed much was the second of those issues: the Reds kick-chase. Whenever the Reds received a kick that didn’t go out the Crusaders had four or five men bearing down on them.

It is the sight of that wall closing in that makes the full back or wing taking the ball want to kick a bomb, a return punt or barrel into player.

Conversely the Crusaders would take a kick and typically it would be Dagg feeding either Guilford or Marshall to sprint past a lone first chaser and get back to midfield. Many of those run metres came unopposed.

It’s not a flashy or prominent area of the game to dwell on, but the Reds just couldn’t find a way to release the pressure of the charging Crusaders pack because they couldn’t get the ball behind them often enough.

For comparison here are the numbers for the Reds back three: Ben Lucas, three runs for 24 metres; Chris Feauai-Sautia, seven runs for 59 metres; Dom Shipperley, four runs for 26 metres.

Stark in contrast.

A number of players now leave this Reds team, along with Coach Ewen McKenzie. Digby Ioane, Luke Morahan, Jono Lance and Radike Samo are all moving on.

It won’t be quite a rebuild next year for Richard Graham. He’s still got a core of James Horwill, Will Genia, Liam Gill and Quade Cooper that will lead the side into the next phase of Reds history.

With him McKenzie perhaps takes a small amount of the “Championship-winning Reds” aura, but the remaining players will be keen to kick on.

In fact, since the Reds won their championship in 2011, they haven’t quite been the same side and a fresh take on their strengths, weaknesses and what it takes to be continuously successful is probably the right thing for the team at this stage.

One of the main discussions after the match, somewhat understandably, was analysing the performance of individuals and try to predict how that translates to the Wallabies the Bledisloe Cup in particular. It’s important how well these players do in the lead-up, obviously.

But I’d urge you to just enjoy what you’re watching here for its own sake. They do give out a trophy for this competition you know!

Already five months of your rugby fandom is invested into this season and we’re just now getting to its peak, so enjoy it.

No, I’m not naïve and think the performance of individuals in these big, important matches doesn’t matter to their national selection. But there’s another way they matter – to their teams’ chances of winning this competition.

Savour the next two weekends as the best few teams in the competition fight to prove they are the championship material. That’s worth holding on to without extrapolating it further for now.

The Reds were great at times this year, and at other times only good. While it’s not a bad season when you make a finals appearance they were certainly shown not to be championship calibre on Saturday night.

For the Crusaders: they deservedly progress to the next cauldron of anticipation and high stakes against the Chiefs, for a place in the final.