WELLINGTON Feb 23 (Reuters) – The Canterbury Crusaders’
hopes of a fairytale ending to cap a tumultuous Super Rugby
season last year were dashed by the Queensland Reds in the final
but the seven-times champions again loom as New Zealand’s
greatest hope to win the trophy.
A year after a ruinous earthquake pounded their home of
Christchurch, little has changed for the Crusaders, who will be
forced to play their first home game in the southern
hemisphere’s annual provincial championship against the Waikato
Chiefs in Napier.
The Crusaders spent their season riding buses to play home
games in small provincial towns but managed to make the playoffs
by sheer force of will and upset South Africa’s Stormers in Cape
Town in a famous semi-final victory.
Like last year, Todd Blackadder’s side will have to begin
their campaign without captain Richie McCaw, who has yet to
recover from a foot injury that he carried through the All
Blacks’ victorious World Cup. He is not expected to be fit until
April.
The Crusaders will battle for home conference honours with
the three-times champion Auckland Blues, who were dominant for
much of last season but stumbled with a late run of losses that
denied them a home semi-final.
The All Black-laden Blues have a monstrous pack, up there
with the best in the competition, and their backline has
profited from Mark Hammett’s controversial clean-out at the
Wellington Hurricanes last year.
All Black scrumhalf Piri Weepu and rampaging inside centre
Ma’a Nonu, both former Hurricanes, complement the pack’s muscle
in the backline, but their lack of an inspirational skipper may
hurt them at the business end of the season.
The Highlanders, long New Zealand’s easy-beats, shocked many
by their brilliant start to the season last year before running
out of gas in the leadup to the playoffs.
They finished the season with eight wins and eight losses,
and with new recruits including dashing back Hosea Gear and All
Black forward Andrew Hore, could make a run to the postseason
for the first time in a decade.
Continued…
