Crusaders ready for Canes attack
"I think the skillset of their players has shown how they want to play. They just play what is in front of them, and take opportunities that are given. So it has got to be on." Crusaders coach Scott Robertson
If a fortune teller invited Scott Robertson into his caravan, where a quick twirl of the cards would reveal the Hurricanes’ game plan, he might get a nasty shock.
Because Crusaders coach Robertson would have good reason to tell his new-found friend what he could do with his mumbo-jumbo, given he has already had ample opportunity to look into the eye of Chris Boyd’s rugby mind.
Hurricanes coach Boyd and Robertson are no strangers. When the former coached the New Zealand under-20 team in 2014, he recruited Robertson and Leon MacDonald as his assistants.
MacDonald now works for Robertson as his assistant backs coach, taking care of the Crusaders attack, and the pair, with the help of Brad Mooar, have created one of the most productive backlines in the competition.
Put it this way, the Hurricanes have scored the most tries this year (7.0 per game) followed by the Crusaders (6.1). On Saturday night, at AMI Stadium, the two excitement machines will clash.
‘‘I understand their (the Hurricanes) philosophy on footy, and how they want to play,’’ Robertson, who also worked with Hurricanes assistant backs coach Jason Holland when the latter assisted him at Canterbury, said.
‘‘I think the skillset of their players has shown how they want to play. They just play what is in front of them, and take opportunities that are given. So it has got to be on.’’
Given the Crusaders have just played three South African teams, there will be a requirement to be more aware for offloads in the tackle and for sneaky grubber kicks by Beauden and Jordie Barrett.
Robertson could call on his men to employ the blitz defence to prevent midfielder Ngani Laumape, the human cannonball who has employed timing and power to become the competition’s top try scorer with 11, from punching through his line of tacklers.
Then there is the need to stop the Hurricanes’ driving mauls, and their ability to repeatedly build sets when in possession.
‘‘It is like rugby league isn’t it? They create pressure and put you in the corner and try to get outcomes that way,’’ Robertson noted. ‘‘They have got a great mindset for attacking rugby.’’
Meanwhile, All Blacks captain and No 8 Kieran Read, who broke his thumb playing for the Crusaders against the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein on April 30, said there is a chance he won’t play a game before the first test against the British and Irish Lions on June 24.
Read told Radio Sport he didn’t want to rush back to action if the thumb was not fully healed.
‘‘In terms of match fitness I won’t have too much to be honest going into that first test but I’ve done this gig a few times,’’ he said. ‘‘I’ve got the confidence in myself that I can turn up and play at a high level. I’ll back myself and I’ll be good, ready to go.’’