Wynne Gray: Crusaders score benefit of home semifinal

Kieran Read is retooling after his injury break. Photo / Getty Images

If experience counts for one iota in the Super 15 playoffs, the Crusaders will make inroads.

If home advantage offers a nudge in the right direction, they will have another edge when they resume in a fortnight, probably against the Sharks in Christchurch.

The third part of the provisional trifecta offers time for men like Richie McCaw to return to action rather than pacing the coaches' box after his rib injury.

In the interim, Daniel Carter has been used at second five eighths and Kieran Read has been bursting through repeat sequences of 50 minutes as the pair retool seasons interrupted by sabbatical and injury.

The riches amongst the Crusaders' group is spreading as they enter the playoffs for the sixth time since Todd Blackadder took over in 2009.

There was an inevitable feel about their latest victory as they dispatched fellow finalists the Highlanders and sent them on the most difficult mission of all - flying to South Africa to challenge the Sharks.

The Crusaders applied an early choker hold, clicked over the scoreboard with Carter's kicking and then moved in for the submission. Their weapon of choice was the lineout drive which splintered the visitors' resistance and delivered the bonus point victory for a home semifinal.

If it sounded straightforward, the Crusaders made it look that way as they organised themselves into the right tempo before hitting their marks. There was no blinding rush, no haste to get the deal done.

They knew they had the measure of their rivals and went about the task in an orderly, efficient manner. They needed a bonus point to bypass work this weekend and most importantly, guarantee them a home semifinal.

As anyone with a sense of Crusaders' history in the Blackadder years will tell you, they have not claimed one title in five previous campaigns. Each season they have got to the semis yet only once gone further, to defeat in the 2011 final against the Reds.

The Sharks will test that record if they are foes in a fortnight.

Two months ago they were in Christchurch and achieved a famous 30-25 victory because they were a man down for most of the match after flanker Jean Deysel was sent off and also lost Willem Alberts to the sinbin.

That night the Crusaders were without Read, Carter, Andy Ellis, Kieron Fonotia and Israel Dagg and made a hash of their numerical advantage. It was an untidy performance against a Sharks crew who showed commitment.

Those memories will still bite in Christchurch and there will be no let-up in preparation. But without a match this weekend forwards like Sam Whitelock, Owen Franks and Wyatt Crockett will get the chance to freshen for the next attempt to ascend the Super 15 summit.

"You need confidence going into finals football and if anything we have scraped our way in [to the playoffs] in the past," Blackadder said. "We have got a fit squad that is determined to do something. The bubble and squeak is there, so we're ready to go."