Yet again the Crusaders look inevitable. The Scott Robertson era seems to be coming to an end with a seventh straight Super Rugby title after his team chewed up and spat out the Blues 52-15 in Christchurch.
If the Blues are ever searching for a new team song they should look no further than countrymen Split Enz. I see red? Over and over again, year after year – as Richie Mo’unga drove his team forward and the team’s stellar outside backs overwhelmed their not too shabby on paper opponents.
The Blues were overwhelmed in the breakdown as well. While Beauden Barrett was totally outplayed by his Test rival Mo’unga, his brother Scott was a warrior in the tight.
Mo’unga scored 22 points as the Crusaders racked up a record total in a finals match – topping the 49 they scored just a week ago against the Drua.
Steve Hansen bemoaned a lack of Super Rugby spectacle earlier in this day. It wasn’t a close game but at least, from an Australian perspective, it was nice to see a Kiwi team get absolutely flogged for once.
The 13-time champion Crusaders now have a 29-0 playoff record in Christchurch, have won 18 of their last 19 matchups against the Blues, and 16 of the previous 17 in Christchurch.
Incredibly it was their 15th consecutive playoff win against any opposition in Super Rugby knockouts. In five of the last seven they’ve held their opponents to under 10 points.
The Brumbies or Chiefs, who meet Saturday for a chance to face the Crusaders next week, will need to become the first team since the Lions in 2016 to beat them in a final if they’re to prevent Robertson’s perfect farewell as he heads off to the All Blacks, alongside Friday’s beaten coach Leon MacDonald.
Richie Mo’ungad. (Photo by Joe Allison/Getty Images)
The Blues were never in it. Their first error came within a minute and it was ruthlessly exposed.
All Black Rieko Ioane was playing his 100th game for the Blues and could not have had a worse start to his forgettable milestone match.
It was his carelessness inside the first minute that led to the opening score. Dallas McLeod drilled a 50-22 and the Crusaders were over on two minutes when Richie Mo’unga spun a cut out pass to Braydon Ennor and he ran through a gap for an easy touch down.
Mo’unga knocked over the conversion and added a ninth minute penalty after an incisive chip. Worse was to follow in quick time for the Blues as another clinical backline move had the visitors stretched and gasping and Leicester Fainga’anuku just had to gather in a bullet pass and stroll across untouched.
Both early tries were made all the easier thanks to poor defensive reads from Mark Telea, a player who has lit up the competition with his explosive attack but was found wanting defensively. He wasn’t the only one though.
Mo’unga showed he was human by banging his conversion attempt into an upright but the pressure was relentless and the Blues were battling to gain a foothold, pressured into errors whenever they were able to get some decent field position.
With just 17 minutes gone the Blues had committed five handling errors and the Crusaders accepted the gifts with predictable ruthlessness.
There were mere glimpses of hope for the Blues. It took 22 minutes for Caleb Clarke’s first chance to show a clean pair of heels but he was gathered in and the Crusaders unleashed a ferocious counter ruck.
Beauden Barrett, whose form has dipped this season, kicked a penalty to make the deficit 18-3. You got the sense he went for the poles to afford his teammates a lungful of air.
It wasn’t enough. The Crusaders were coming in waves. Fainga’anuku just failed to haul in a kick for a second but it felt a matter of time and of course it was. Rieko Ioane and Clarke got a defensive read wrong and Will Jordan screamed onto a short pass from Ennor and through the gate for a try under the posts.
The Blues lost No.8 Hoskins Sotutu to a yellow card in the 38th minute and the Blues paid the price as Codie Taylor drove over to take the score to 32-3 at the break.
“They’re just shellshocked. Right from the get go, the intensity, the skill level, and then the finishing capabilities of the Crusaders….” said former All Black Mils Muliaina on the halftime show. “They’ve sped the game up, shown plenty of skill factor and X factor as well.
“Theyve been really cynical about the way they’ve gone about it. It almost seems like the Blues have come out there and said we’re gonna chuck everything at them but it’s individualistic which is why the Crusaders have been able to put real pressure on them.”
The Blues were rocked by the Crusaders’ intensity on both sides of the ball.
“The breakdown has been unbelievable,” said former All Black Israel Dagg. “They have been so certain. They’ve been confident, they’re not over committing with numbers, they’re sending the right numbers in and it allows them to play their game.
“Will Jordan, Richie Mo’unga pop out the back. They pop out late and they can create a bit of difference there. That’s when they’re very very dangerous, but they’re really decisive particularly the break down.”
The Blues, he said, “look indecisive. They look like they don’t know what they’re doing. I think they’ve been told they don’t want to kick. They need to find some certainty some clarity and I’m sure there’ll be speaking about that at halftime.”
The Blues needed a second half miracle, but any hint of one was swept away within seven minutes.
Fainga’anuku, who has caused consternation in NZ rugby circles with his decision to chase euros with Toulon next season instead of sticking around in Super Rugby, scored a stunning solo try. Might he be the man to end the Kiwis’ staunch refusal to pick overseas players for the All Blacks?
Soon after Robertson gave Fainga’anuku an early mark – the winger walking off slowly to soak up a deserved standing ovation.
There was a consolation try to Beauden Barrett but it was cold comfort. This game showed a huge form gulf between he and Mo’unga, who put Fergus Burke over with a peach of a pass.
“This what he does,” said Robertson. “He just loves these occasions.”
The Crusaders opted to finish with 14 players after alate injury and the Blues grabbed a try after the siren to Clarke. Barrett’s last action in Super Rugby, with a Japan move upcoming, was a sweet conversion. But too little, too late.
Jacko
Roar Rookie
Agree! I think they still conceeded 5 turnovers at rucks in the 2nd half tho.
Fox
Roar Guru
Yes just the wrong one at the ruck - until the second half.
Fox
Roar Guru
Held their own at set piece though and that is important. And you can’t judge players by one game alone.
Fox
Roar Guru
I'd back the Crusaders to take it Muzzo but the Chiefs have the best D in the comp and will not be easy pickings for the Crusaders and they will commit to the breakdown early. They won't make the same error the Blues coaching staff did - well lets hope bloody not or we are in for an ordinary final.
Fox
Roar Guru
Not true Jacko they committed more to the ruck in the second half which was a tougher contest but it was too late by then.
Fox
Roar Guru
All the Barretts and Reiko are in AB squad so not sure what you are on about there.
Fox
Roar Guru
Yep Muzzo I agree but I guess it's a wait and see thing for now. Guess none of this will be resolved until post WC and even then it will take many meetings I suspect with regional clubs and the players union etc. These things have many hurdles to pass because of all the politics involved and not just here but with the private ownership overlords at the big French and UK clubs - especially France. Well I they are the one's forking out the huge salaries but you are right some give and take has to be negociated but its tough with the French clubs. Most of owners don't give rats about international rugby unless its a WC.
Muzzo
Roar Rookie
Yep totally agree on most you have said Fox, but IMO we haven't seen the last of this, as I'm pretty sure Razor will continue on his pursuit to start including many of our promising talent in returning for the Black jersey. Geeez mate, all it is, to stop this, is have something like having it in the signing of their contracts to be released for national duties. I'm not sure, if the Bokke have that in place for their overseas players, or is it they are more passionate, in playing for their country? Yes we have lost quite a few over the years playing for nations that they are related to through grandparents or such, & they have been big losses to their nation, so in this I'm really supportive, & hopefully Razor will make those in HQ see the light.
Muzzo
Roar Rookie
In a way yes. As there are still many that are coming through our systems, even some at a young age. TBH we are a Polynesian nation, being our culture has come from there. I realise that back in the 50's & 60's many came to Aotearoa for work, & many PI's have made Aotearoa their home, in which many were born in Aotearoa. But where we have it over Australia, in regards to PI players being born in Australia, is that Aotearoa is a Polynesian nation.
Fox
Roar Guru
Muzzo the Crusaders played well - very well - but their backs got loads of goods front foot ball allowing them to shine. The second half was better as the Blues committed more to the breakdown. It was clearly a game plan from their coaching - and a dumb one - to stand off the ruck to allow more in defence and provide more options as inside runners, but it took until the second half before L Mac changed tactics. It was too late and by then the Saders were on a big roll. Goodhue had a good game in the D but he is going to France on big offer its just been announced like LF on the wing so unless the NZR change their selection policies they are effectively out of any AB side post WC. Whether Razor can change that remains to be seen but I would not hold my breath Muzzo on that score for now. They know as soon as they anounce that the vultures from the north and these days even Japan - but we have a deal with them - will pounce offering NZ player and especially AB's big contracts left right and centre. Even the strength of the NPC could be diluted if they have not been AB's as sides will contract them with notions of playing for other interantional sides.. Now I think - like you Muzzo - that it is inevitable - but exactly when ? Who really knows. NZ does not want to spoon feed other nations some of their most promising players before they have become AB's that is for sure. Look at the number of Kiwis that have ended up playing for Wales - Scotland - England and Ireland in recent years. Multiply that by 4 or 5 if they allow players to go overseas without consequences. It will be wholesale poaching Muzzo trust me. But yes it will eventually happen I agree.
Lux Interior
Roar Rookie
Top post, Brab.
BleedRedandBlack
Roar Rookie
Or maybe because I don't think your solution to unequal performance would ever be applied, would work if it was, or would last. Of all the extraordinarily stupid and destructive things NZR have done to SR, a salary cap and reinstitution of the draft would, without doubt, be the worst. And having seen that was the case, it would be gone within the year. If you want to address the problem of why some succeed and some fail, instead of adopting the whiny loser solution, take a look at the Chiefs. They are finally doing what they should have been doing decades ago and are leveraging their collosal advantage in population [They are biggest in the country] to create a team drawn almost entirely from their own franchise area. Instead of being too stupid to recognise the talent in their four NPC teams, they now pick it all. As OB pointed out, they are only losing talent where it is excess. The Chiefs are now a genuine heavyweight, and will be forever. And it wont be because they've been gifted All Blacks by the NZR. But what about the Highlanders, is the refrain. Why shouldn't we reinvent the whole system to serve them? This is in flat defiance of the fact that the Highlanders have finally recognised that they need to develop their own talent from a post-secondary school level through their academy's instead of relying on recruitment of players in their early twenties to produce something, that they are finally starting to do what they should have been doing decades ago and are finally growing their own. Even Southland recognise that they have to contribute with PD. And the Highlanders are doing an excellent job. Their U20's have been excellent the last two years, getting 2nd and 3rd in the national tournament. Far better than the Crusaders. They will always have to recruit outside their own area, but having arrived in Dunedin at 18 years old they will Highlanders for life. Put it this way, if you told the Highlanders board and coaches that the solution to their underperformance is being gifted a whole lot of All Blacks who didnt want to be there, they would tell you to watch that Sky documentary about them, then politely show you to the door and get on with their job, which is to make their own All Blacks, not take them off other clubs.
1eye
Roar Rookie
Did the Blues even have a game plan?
KiwiHaydn
Roar Rookie
Of course you’d disagree, why would you want anything to change when it’s your team that’s dominating? Meanwhile the rest of the competition suffers. I’ve got messages with friends from October last year predicting the Highlanders to get last out of the NZ teams and the Crusaders and Chiefs to make the final. Much like your response, it’s all too predictable.
BleedRedandBlack
Roar Rookie
I fully understood what you said, I just entirely disagree with it. You state/imply that the imposition of a salary cap and a draft would somehow magically solve the radical difference in performance between the Crusaders and the rest. And this despite the vivid example of a game where the Crusaders had 16 players out but still poleaxed a team with 10 All Blacks in it that up until that point had been playing well. A game that proved that it is absolutely not about the talent in the team, its about how it is managed. As the Crusaders having been proving for almost thirty years. Again, are the Crusaders coaches and admin now going to be subject to your draft/salary cap? Because that is where the Crusaders domination comes from. The players are a function of that excellence, and become AB's because of that excellence, not the other way around. Your logic is that the quantity and and quality of AB's determines results for SR for NZ teams. Then how do you explain the original Crusaders 3 peat, when they had two regular AB's, Marshall and Mehertens? Or the Crusaders failure to win anything 2009-2016, when they had some of the greatest players to ever play the game? Or the Blues failure to win SRP under MacDonald, despite currently having 14 AB's? Or the Hurricanes failure to win anything in the early 2000's, when they had a golden generation of players and AB's coming out their ears? Above all how about the Highlanders abject failure in 2013 when they tried to buy a championship by recruiting out of town AB's? Sky have made a documentary about your idea, and shown just how spectacularly defective it is.
Fox
Roar Guru
Amen to that Harry :thumbup:
SwissRugbyFan
Roar Rookie
On another site i read that goodhue is offvto castres. Some quality players leaving nz after that season / wc.
Nick
Roar Rookie
1000% Agree on that Muzzo.
KiwiHaydn
Roar Rookie
Completely missed the point mate. What benefit is there in having one team dominate the competition for so long? Look at the NRL, who everyone from Shag to Wayne Smith to Justin Marshall are comparing Super Rugby to. There are teams such as the Roosters and previously the Storm who have similar systems and success as the Crusaders, but can’t maintain it long term due to the salary cap. They have to give up some players and move them on, and that results in a stronger competition overall rather than players heading overseas. Even with 16 players out injured, the Crusaders still fielded 7 ABs in their starting 15. Teams like the Canes and the Highlanders don’t have that many in their entire squad. And no, not all of those player came from the Crusaders catchment. Would be interested to see the wage bill of the Crusaders vs the Highlanders as I’d imagine the difference would be significant. And all while NZ Rugby funds it. Fair enough if it was a fully professional competition like the EPL or NFL, but it’s not.
Old Bugger
Roar Rookie
Don't blame Foster - LF knew that Razor was gonna be the next AB coach long before, he confirmed his intention to go north. Also, pursuing a chance to play for Tonga, has no relevance in this matter to the extent, that even his current franchise coach (next AB coach), could not convince him to remain, in NZ. It's something that's in him - he either wants to or he doesn't, play for the ABs beyond 2023. We now know, his response.