His side's performance reflected that reflected that of a male streaker, who sauntered across the field late in the game and then rather tamely surrendered to the lone lawman - no protest, no fight, no bottle.
An early Graham Dempster drop goal gave them some hope but that was the only time the Crusaders held the lead.
The Blues were also smarting from their narrow squeak against the Hurricanes and yesterday brought some action to go with their words.
They ran the ball cleverly into the wind, so well that they had four tries by the break, including a Jonah Lomu special and an intriguing penalty try.
Some early Eroni Clarke magic, as he slipped passes in tackles, led to a try by Lee Stensness before Lomu was unleashed from just outside his 22. He swatted away one defender and then simply ran round Simon Forrest whose flailing tackle signified what was going to be a poor day for the fullback.
Carlos Spencer then gave the smaller man's version of the same routine. He spurted out of his 22 until confronted by Forrest, who flung out a loose arm as Spencer sidestepped him to concede a penalty try and earn a ticking off from referee Paddy O'Brien.
Several other messy Blues attempts to run the ball through the backs cost ground and one try before Charles Riechelmann, playing at lock with the verve of an outstanding loose forward, followed up Stensness for the killer try on halftime.
That 24-13 lead was extended quickly when Todd Blackadder and Justin Marshall, the two standout Crusaders again, lost control of a lineout for Andrew Blowers the first of his two tries.
Then mass confusion as a scarp broke out on the field and degenerated across the touchline while the Blues managed to concentrate enough on the rugby for Waisake Sotutu to run past the combatants to score.
None of the match officials saw enough of the incidents to make any rulings, but without doubt, the brawl will bring the match commissioner into work today.
If not, the travelling Transvaal side will be making more accusations about New Zealand rugby's judicial processes.
From there play became more fragmented as steady rain made the ball so greasy that when the Crusaders made a promising late burst from their line the ball popped free for Errol Brain to pounce and run 20 metres for the try.
Since this first clash between the Blues and the Crusaders, the Blues have gone on to win three Super Rugby titles (1996, '97 and '03) while the Crusaders have won seven titles (1998, '99, '00, '02, '05, '06, '08).
The sides have met on 22 occasions during that time, with the Crusaders winning 13 and the Blues winning nine:
• 1997 - Blues 29-28, Growers Stadium Pukekohe
• 1998 - Blues 31-24, Jade Stadium (round-robin); Crusaders 20-13, Eden Park (final)
• 1999 - Crusaders 22-16, Eden Park
• 2000 - Crusaders 32-20, Jade Stadium
• 2001 - Blues 17-12, Eden Park
• 2002 - Crusaders 30-11, Jade Stadium
• 2003 - Blues 39-5, North Harbour Stadium (round-robin); Blues 21-17, Eden Park (final)
• 2004 - Blues 38-29, Jade Stadium
• 2005 - Crusaders 41-19, Eden Park
• 2006 - Crusaders 39-10, Jade Stadium
• 2007 - Blues 34-25, Eden Park
• 2008 - Crusaders 26-22, AMI Stadium
• 2009 - Crusaders 15-13, Eden Park
• 2010 - Crusaders 33-20, AMI Stadium
• 2011 - Blues 24-22, Eden Park; Crusaders 23-16, Timaru
• 2012 - Crusaders 19-18; Crusaders 59-12, AMI Stadium
• 2013 - Blues 34-15, Eden Park; Crusaders 23-3, AMI Stadium
• 2014 - Blues 35-24, Eden Park; Crusaders 21-13.
