Source: Radio New Zealand
All Black Will Jordan was rested for the Crusaders’ clash against the Blues. Martin Hunter/ActionPress
World class one week, woeful the next.
The Crusaders barely fired a shot against the Blues at Eden Park, a sloppy and disjointed performance seeing them succumb 29-13 to their old rivals.
Most worryingly, their clunky attack failed to make any real inroads on the Blues defence.
After looking so potent against the Chiefs, the Crusaders lacked direction just a week later, fumbling passes, kicking aimlessly and repeatedly caught behind the advantage line.
Such a drastic dip forces questions and the obvious answer – they were without their primary weapon, Will Jordan, with the All Black rested for the round four clash.
Do the Crusaders rely on their sensational fullback too heavily? Coach Rob Penney concedes they might.
“We talk about that a bit and that’s the last thing we want to,” he said. “He’s world class and he makes a massive impact for any team he’s in.
“We need to take heat off Jordy. Will’s just an amazing talent, and we want to make sure he can come here and play with freedom, not feel as though he’s a critical piece.”
Penney described it as an “ugly performance”.
“Really disappointing,” he admitted. “We were messy, couldn’t get any rhythm.
“Looked as though we were a bit flat, didn’t bring any intensity really. We’ve got some talented players and we were inexplicably error-ridden tonight.
“There wouldn’t be too many that could put their hand up and say it wasn’t me.”
Handling errors plagued them throughout.
“You could see a lot of them were at times when there wasn’t a lot of defensive pressure on, so we can’t blame excess pressure. The boys are better than that.
“It’s hard to put your finger on when good players are making errors.”
They also had a Jamie Hannah try disallowed, due to an earlier high shot by Dom Gardiner.
“They’re big momentum shifters. We’re disappointed that we work hard on keeping our shots down, our tackle height down.
“We didn’t need to be in that position. Very frustrating, because it was a nice try and we’d fought our way back, so big turnaround.”
After their stunning upset win over the Chiefs, the Crusaders have now lost three of their first four matches to begin their title defence.
“It probably does feel as though we haven’t certainly made the progress we would’ve liked on the back of last week,” said Penney.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
