By Greg Stutchbury
WELLINGTON, June 3 (Reuters) – Ten minutes of blistering
high-tempo rugby against the Otago Highlanders on Friday was all
the Canterbury Crusaders needed to send out a warning to the
rest of Super Rugby – the seven-times champions were ready for
the business end of the season.
While South Africa’s Stormers also look in imposing form
going into the four-week international break, and the ACT
Brumbies continue to surprise in Australia, the Crusaders seem
to be building up quite a head of steam.
In their fifth match at in their new Christchurch home on
Friday, the Crusaders clinically exploited England international
James Haskell’s sinbinning and scored 22 unanswered points in
the time the loose forward was off the field.
The score blew out to 32-13 and the Highlanders, winners of
nine games this season, seventh in the table and looking to stay
in the playoffs race themselves, never recovered.
That the Crusaders were so efficient, so ruthless in attack
and brutal in defence was, as respected New Zealand Herald rugby
journalist Wynne Gray put it, “frightening” and the 51-18 win
propelled them into fourth place in the standings on 51 points.
“We are playing like Crusaders teams of the past now. It’d
be good to keep it like that,” winger Zac Guildford told Fairfax
Media after the Highlanders game.
The Crusaders, who provided 10 players to the All Blacks
squad named on Sunday for three tests against Ireland, will face
the sixth-placed Hurricanes and table-topping Chiefs in their
final two games.
“Home advantage is going to be crucial,” Guildford said of
the playoffs. “We’d like to see the Chiefs upset and then, when
we meet, get one over them.”
Continued…
