The Star: July 09, 2020

Thursday July 9 2020 The Star
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
SPORT 25
Crusaders can expose
Blues’ vulnerability
• By Gregor Paul
THE BLUES have been poked
and probed in the last three weeks,
flipped about and smacked from
most angles and yielded nothing.
None of the Hurricanes, Chiefs
or Highlanders were able to find
a weak spot.
The Blues now have everyone’s
attention. They have earned the
right to be taken seriously and
yet while it has been a significant
feat to pass the examinations
Super Rugby Aotearoa has so far
set, judgement about their true
state of readiness to win this
competition will only be made
at Orangetheory Stadium on
Saturday.
There’s nothing more likely to
expose vulnerability than a midwinter
visit to Christchurch.
Playing the Crusaders on their
home patch is the metaphoric
Gestapo interrogation: It’s a
bright light in the eyes experience.
A torrid, nasty affair that
will find and manipulate weakness
to the point of surrender.
It is now four years since the
Crusaders lost a Super Rugby
match in Christchurch. That was
to the Hurricanes in 2016 and
three weeks after that happened,
captain Dane Coles was holding
aloft the Super Rugby trophy.
That says it all. What separates a
good team from a champion team
is the ability to win in Christchurch.
That’s they key to Super
Rugby right there – beat the Crusaders
on their home patch and
one hand goes on the trophy.
The Crusaders did lose to the
British and Irish Lions in 2017, but
the fact that the tourists picked
what was effectively their test team
and still only scraped the victory,
accentuates what sort of performance
it takes for the visiting team
to win in Christchurch.
And this is why so much will
be learned about the Blues this
weekend as the whole business
of playing in Christchurch first
TRY TIME: Richie Mo’unga breaks away from Patrick Tuipulotu on his way to touching
down back in February, when the Crusaders beat the Blues 25-8 at Eden Park.
PHOTO: GETTY
demands teams to ask whether
they really see themselves as
potential champions.
Plenty of teams in the past few
years have convinced themselves
they were genuinely there chasing
victory, but their gameplan
and execution said otherwise.
The Crusaders can sniff weakness
like a shark. Give them
just a hint that a visiting team is
playing out for time – passively
rather than actively managing
their strategy – and it will be all
over by half-time.
When the Hurricanes won in
2016 they were fearless. There
was a determination about them
that night which unsettled
the Crusaders.
The Hurricanes supposedly
had a weak tight five and yet they
came at the Crusaders through
the middle. Everything was calculated
to upset the Crusaders’
understanding of what they were
facing.
So the Blues will have to ask
themselves this week what
level of contentment they would
derive from getting close against
actually winning and the answer
will become evident in the gameplan
they adopt and the attitude
they produce.
If they are there to win, the Blues
will take the same approach as the
Hurricanes did in 2016 and leave
the Crusaders uncertain about
what they are facing.
That requires a relentlessly
aggressive mind-set that sees
only opportunity and not threat.
It requires a at every attack the
Crusaders lineout. Patrick
Tuipulotu will look Sam Whitelock
in the eye and let him know
he’s not afraid to take him on in
the air.
Tuipulotu has been the best
lock in the country this year. But
if he’s honest, he’ll know that he’s
seen by his opponent as a great
ball carrier and tackler and not a
great lineout forward.
If the Blues are there to win,
they will hold their discipline at
the offside line and trust their
timing and linespeed to produce
the aggressive defence that has
made them so hard to break
down in the last few weeks.
And if they are to win they will
be prepared to take attacking
risks – to trust that if they can
create space for Caleb Clarke,
Mark Telea, Beauden Barrett and
Rieko Ioane, they will be good
enough to exploit it.
No side can win in Christchurch
if they don’t play their natural
game and so the Blues’ approach
to this contest will tell us as much
about their readiness as the result.
- NZ Herald
Chch Utd
players
exposed to
influential
coach
CHRISTCHURCH United
Academy players are currently
enjoying the luxury of soaking up
the expertise of
one football’s
most influential
player
development
brains.
Rob Sherman
recently
returned to
Christchurch
after stepping
Rob
Sherman
down as technical director at
Football Federation Australia.
As his travel options are limited
by Covid-19, he has agreed to
run an eight-week programme
with the Christchurch United
Academy.
“We are incredibly honoured
that Rob has agreed to join our
Academy trainings for the coming
weeks,” said Christchurch
United head of coaching Michiel
Buursma.
“You cannot underestimate
the value of our coaches and
players being able to learn from
one of the few coaches in this
part of the world with a professional
licence.”
Sherman said he greatly
admires Christchurch United’s
commitment to the development
of future players and people.
“Having the opportunity to
contribute in some small way to
their academy programme whilst
back in Christchurch is something
I relish,” said Sherman, who
enjoyed a professional playing
career in the UK, before devoting
the next 20 years developing
players.
He started his coaching journey
at the Welsh Football Association,
where he helped to mould
superstars like Real Madrid’s
Gareth Bale and Juventus player
Aaron Ramsey.
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