Super Rugby Pacific: Crusaders decline sparks celebration but does competition benefit? - Gregor Paul

ANALYSIS

Three weeks into Super Rugby Pacific and Kiwis probably haven’t appreciated the obvious improvements the Reds and Waratahs have made to stiffen themselves as serious opposition, because they are too busy enjoying the demise of the Crusaders.

Seeing the Crusaders, winless and wallowing in 11th place, has without doubt brought a warm fuzzy feeling to fans everywhere other than Christchurch and the upper South Island.

There’s no denying that seven years of total dominance by the Crusaders left others without hope or optimism and that some of the rejoicing is just about welcoming a fresh narrative.

Super Rugby needed a different storyline than Crusaders play, Crusaders win, Crusaders become champions and 2024 looks likely to produce a new winner for the first time since 2016.

So too is there an element of tribalism coming through - provincial loyalties shining brightly and taking joy in seeing an old foe going through the sort of hard times that the likes of the Blues and Highlanders in particular, have come to know only too well.

It’s not in the DNA to sympathise with the plight of a sporting rival: Liverpool aren’t sad about seeing Manchester United battling for a foothold among the elite in the English Premiership, just as Crusaders’ fans never felt anything but glee in seeing the Blues endure a decade or so in the wilderness.

But so too is there a bit of tall poppy syndrome in this revelling - an obvious schadenfreude that a champion team, which has set the benchmark for professional teams everywhere, is now reduced to living off losing bonus points.

Some of the joy that has come from seeing the Crusaders lose to the Chiefs, Waratahs and Drua in successive weekends just seems spiteful and petty - mindless celebration that an enormously successful team is not enjoying an enormously successful campaign.

It is easy to imagine there are fans in living rooms everywhere suggesting the Crusaders are now getting their just desserts, that they brought this fall from grace on themselves as if they were Icarus flying too close to the sun.

There’s a thread developing about the Crusaders being poachers - that they don’t nurture and grow their own stars, but instead steal them from others - and that they are now getting their comeuppance.

But it’s all small-minded nonsense, the kind in which some misguided sorts seem to take delight as if success is ultimately shameful if it comes in too heavy a quantity.

While it is no bad thing for Super Rugby Pacific to have rid itself of the inevitability of the Crusaders winning the title again, and it’s good to see a bit of tribal pride emerging, no one should be celebrating that the defending champions are not delivering the same high-intensity, high-quality rugby for which they are famed.

The sustained excellence of the Crusaders has been vital in driving standards across the competition.

It has been the Crusaders who have held every other team accountable to produce improvements.

In 2022, when the all-conquering Blues were badly done over by the Crusaders in the final at Eden Park, they had to absorb the cold truth they weren’t all they thought they were, lick their wounds and come back in 2023 harder, smarter and more resilient than they had been.

It was the same for the Chiefs last year. They were skittling everything in their way but couldn’t beat the Crusaders when it mattered most - and so they too were forced to dig deeper into the well to see what else was in there.

This is the beauty of having a relentless team such as the Crusaders - they lift everyone else to their standards, and to some extent, the mini-revival of the Reds and Waratahs this year, is partly due to the defending champions.

Both New South Wales and Queensland have seen over the years where they need to be if they want to add to their respective solitary title wins, and so in their planning, recruitment, development and training, they have had a guiding light.

What would be best for Super Rugby, and certainly worth celebrating, is if the Crusaders were sitting in 11th place and yet still playing at the standards they always have.

Success for Super Rugby will be for the best teams to go beyond the standards the Crusaders have set: to take themselves to the next level and inspire each other into a virtuous cycle of improvement.

But it feels like all that has happened is the tournament has seen its North Star lose its shine as a result of heavy personnel changes and an albeit wider than anticipated group of teams are not quite managing to fill the vacuum.

The top of the table is crowded and it certainly looks like there are more challengers than there have been in previous years.

But it is a group that is not yet showing they can produce the same sort of discipline, control and accuracy in the same relentless way that the Crusaders did between 2017 and 2023.

Gregor Paul is one of New Zealand’s most respected rugby writers and columnists. He has won multiple awards for journalism and has written several books about sport.