{"id":8226,"date":"2012-02-23T02:31:31","date_gmt":"2012-02-23T00:31:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/02\/rugby-crusaders-to-lead-new-zealands-super-charge-again\/"},"modified":"2012-02-23T02:31:31","modified_gmt":"2012-02-23T00:31:31","slug":"rugby-crusaders-to-lead-new-zealands-super-charge-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/rugby-crusaders-to-lead-new-zealands-super-charge-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Rugby-Crusaders to lead New Zealand’s Super charge again"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

WELLINGTON<\/span> Feb 23 (Reuters) – The Canterbury Crusaders’
\nhopes of a fairytale ending to cap a tumultuous Super Rugby
\nseason last year were dashed by the Queensland Reds in the final
\nbut the seven-times champions again loom as New Zealand’s
\ngreatest hope to win the trophy.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

A year after a ruinous earthquake pounded their home of
\nChristchurch, little has changed for the Crusaders, who will be
\nforced to play their first home game in the southern
\nhemisphere’s annual provincial championship against the Waikato
\nChiefs in Napier.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The Crusaders spent their season riding buses to play home
\ngames in small provincial towns but managed to make the playoffs
\nby sheer force of will and upset South Africa’s Stormers in Cape
\nTown in a famous semi-final victory.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Like last year, Todd Blackadder’s side will have to begin
\ntheir campaign without captain Richie McCaw, who has yet to
\nrecover from a foot injury that he carried through the All
\nBlacks’ victorious World Cup. He is not expected to be fit until
\nApril.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The Crusaders will battle for home conference honours with
\nthe three-times champion Auckland Blues, who were dominant for
\nmuch of last season but stumbled with a late run of losses that
\ndenied them a home semi-final.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The All Black-laden Blues have a monstrous pack, up there
\nwith the best in the competition, and their backline has
\nprofited from Mark Hammett’s controversial clean-out at the
\nWellington Hurricanes last year.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

All Black scrumhalf Piri Weepu and rampaging inside centre
\nMa’a Nonu, both former Hurricanes, complement the pack’s muscle
\nin the backline, but their lack of an inspirational skipper may
\nhurt them at the business end of the season.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The Highlanders, long New Zealand’s easy-beats, shocked many
\nby their brilliant start to the season last year before running
\nout of gas in the leadup to the playoffs.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

They finished the season with eight wins and eight losses,
\nand with new recruits including dashing back Hosea Gear and All
\nBlack forward Andrew Hore, could make a run to the postseason
\nfor the first time in a decade.
\n\u00a0 Continued…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-8226","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8226\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}