A dejected Beauden Barrett and his Blues teammates after the Super Rugby Pacific semifinal defeat to the Crusaders. Photo / Photosport
A dejected Beauden Barrett and his Blues teammates after the Super Rugby Pacific semifinal defeat to the Crusaders. Photo / Photosport
OPINION
Some time back, my brother and I visited family in the South Island, our arrival coinciding with a Crusaders-Blues match in the days when the Blues were much more of a threat.
The family lived in Nelson but were born-and-raised Cantabs. As the game kicked off, the jokey-jokey banterwas replaced by the same sort of cold fire with which the Crusaders dismembered the Blues on Friday. My brother and I unconsciously moved together in the room, the temperature of which had significantly dropped.
No longer were we the family members from up north; we were Blues fans – and the family silently, coldly, closed ranks until the Crusaders had won, at which point they became again happy, open and welcoming souls.
That “family” element is what sustains the Crusaders. It is what will make their legacy – an overused word, but accurate in this case – live on long after Scott Robertson and a host of All Blacks have moved on, leading many to suppose that the red-and-blacks will fall apart like a slow-cooked lamb shoulder.
It could be seen in the pre-match pictures from the changing rooms. The Blues were silent and apart, sitting on benches, their heads bowed, focusing on the task ahead, intensity crackling around them like sparks from a disconnected cable. The Crusaders were all in a circle, arms around each other, doing breathing exercises.
It didn’t matter that they were down eight All Blacks, including the great Sam Whitelock. As Robertson said before the game, it’s amazing what people can do when given an opportunity. Players like lesser-known loose forwards Christian Lio-Willie and Sione Havili-Talitui ripped into the Blues with the ball and on defence.
It showed in the game plans. The Crusaders’ was disarmingly simple – tackle everything that moves, don’t just contest the breakdowns – hit them like arrows, dominate them but stay on your feet. It was executed perfectly while the Blues’ defence opened wide, like a man in a dentist’s chair.
The Blues’ game plan was a bit like watching clowns run across a minefield; a flock of sheep deciding to play bullrush against a pride of lions. Before the match, I said to a colleague that the Blues should play completely the opposite of the Crusaders’ expectations – instead of the usual up-the-guts in midfield and wide to their damaging wingers.
Tighten it right up, more driving play, more pick-and-goes; little kicking unless it was contestable; keep the ball, kick the goals, let scoreboard pressure do its job; counter-attack only in space. Test rugby, in other words.
The Crusaders celebrate a try by winger Leicester Fainga'anuku. Photo / Photosport
What we got was a Blues variation on Field-Marshall Haig’s “brilliant plan” in World War I, as illustrated in the outstanding Blackadder series where army captain Blackadder says: “Ah, would this brilliant plan involve us getting out of our trenches and walking very slowly towards the enemy?”
Asked how he knew such secret information, Blackadder points out it was the plan used 17 times previously. Haig’s military acolytes say that was what was so brilliant about it - the enemy would never expect them to do the same thing for an 18th time. There was just one small problem.
“Yes,” says Blackadder, “everyone gets slaughtered in the first 10 seconds”. The Blues were slaughtered in the first 10 minutes. Coach Leon MacDonald now heads off to his All Blacks job with a rather embarrassing postscript on his CV – a 50-point hiding in a Super Rugby semifinal. Ouch.
For those looking at the future with a telescope rather than through fogged sunglasses, Robertson’s accession to All Blacks head coach brings the promise of simple game plans executed well.
Crusaders coach Scott Robertson. Photo / Photosport
This weekend is also about the first All Blacks squad named in a World Cup year and how incumbent coach Ian Foster will select players to employ the style of rugby he wants.
There have been some recent international examples that the All Blacks’ attacking style is now passé. Defeats to Ireland, England and Argentina have shown what a passionate and smothering defence can do to attacking ambitions. It remains to be seen whether Foster adopts a Field Marshal Haig plan or comes up with something different.
There will be some clues in his first squad, though the number of injuries – including to a bloke ironically called Blackadder – may obscure things.
There will be a lot of Crusaders in the squad, however, and we can all perhaps feel grateful for that. In Super Rugby terms, their dynasty was built, in the beginning, on a southerner’s tribal dislike of those in the north, which begets the cold fury with which the Crusaders played on Friday night.
But it has morphed into something bigger – the band of brothers thing is just part of what has grown up under Robertson; they resemble closely the All Black spirit experienced under skippers like Sean Fitzpatrick, Tana Umaga and Richie McCaw.
Whether it translates to the All Blacks is yet to be determined but, regardless of what happens in next week’s Super Rugby final, anyone who thinks the Crusaders will be easier targets after the coming exodus just don’t understand what has been happening down there.
