Super Rugby conundrum for World Cup choices
It’s time for some glass-half-full chat as the Blues fiasco rumbles on with no apparent solution.
The All Black-laden Crusaders were stitched up as well by the Waratahs whose power offered more proof about how sides will attempt to derail the World Cup holders later this year.
There were the Crusaders — with a pack bulging with frontline test forwards and a backline with dollops of that experience, too — blown off the track by the muscular stress created by the Tahs.
A year ago there was nothing between them; this year the gap is widening and the Tahs-Wallabies’ confidence surging.
There is a shiny and curious side to the Crusaders’ demise.
Their players will now flood the All Black squad which will travel to Samoa for the historic July test in Apia. We’ll get to see if national coach Steve Hansen and his cohorts can press the right buttons to reactivate these experienced troops.
Much of the snap has gone from the Crusaders, those episodes when they ignite and cast aside their challengers just as the Hurricanes are doing this season.
By contrast there is a look of the same speed tread about the Crusaders. The extra crunch, the fireand-deliver moments, they have evaporated.
Enter Stephen William Hansen, CNZM, the man charged with finding the right ingredients to stir the playing pot through the tests in July and August which lead into the eighth World Cup.
One of Hansen’s concepts focuses on never standing still. He warns it’s a trap for any coach to binge on success and even as the All Blacks were going through their unbeaten stretch two years ago, the staff were looking at ways to improve and develop their play.
Now they are at another fork in the test road. There are frayed edges on some of the All Blacks regulars but the Crusaders’ slide means they will get greater attention in camp next month where the coaches can make their holistic assessments.
They’ll judge the energy, skills and rugby reliability of men they have relied on against the new wave of All Blacks contenders who have flooded the Super Rugby scene.
A heavy layer of Crusaders and Blues players will work towards the test in Apia where experience and control will be essential while the balance of the squad, announced on July 21, will come from sides that don’t get past the Super Rugby quarter-finals.
The question will be who benefits the most. Will it be those who get first dibs on the All Blacks’ makeover moves or will continuing form through the Super Rugby playoffs carry more weight when it comes to selection for the Rugby Championship and beyond?