Five-times champions Canterbury Crusaders are facing a Super 14 acid test against South Africa’s Northern Bulls on Friday in an encounter they must win to keep their title hopes on track.
Buffeted by last weekend’s upset defeat to the Western Stormers, the champion New Zealand province suddenly find themselves with their season on the line against the fifth-placed Bulls at Pretoria’s Loftus Versfeld stadium.
The Crusaders, for so long the yardstick of the Super 12/14 competition, always have problems in Pretoria — they have lost three of their five encounters at high altitude and their only two wins came after tough encounters.
And the pride of New Zealand rugby will have to get through without their talisman flanker Richie McCaw, who coach Robbie Deans said is being ”rested” amid fears about a head injury.
Canterbury go into the Pretoria showdown knowing the heat is on them from Australia’s New South Wales Waratahs, who shade them at the top of the standings on points difference and who play the seventh-placed Waikato Chiefs in Hamilton on Saturday.
With just two games left to this month’s semi-finals, the Crusaders know that defeat Friday could possibly hand their fierce Australian rivals pole position in hosting this season’s final should the Waratahs win their remaining games.
It’s little wonder that nerves are jangling in the Crusaders’ camp heading into an intriguing weekend of matches in South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.
”We haven’t beaten them [Bulls] in a long, long time in Pretoria,” Crusaders and All Blacks lock Chris Jack said on Thursday.
”It’s the hardest ground to win at in this competition. It couldn’t have come at a worst time either — facing them after two disappointing results, no time to recover really.
”But there were a lot of little things that we didn’t do right against the Stormers and we hope to fix them this week. We will be doing our best to do that.”
The task will be no easier without McCaw, one of the rugby world’s premier players. The Crusaders’ ability to score from anywhere on the field will again be limited through his ball-winning absence.
The Bulls are making a late charge for the finals, winning their last two home games and are just four points off the fourth-placed Brumbies, who tackle the Otago Highlanders in Canberra on Saturday.
”They [Bulls] won’t be giving this one up easily,” Jack said. ”They’ll basically have the whole of South Africa behind them because they’re carrying the country’s hopes in this competition which will make it even harder for us.”
Scrumhalf Chris Whitaker will become the most-capped player in NSW rugby history against the Chiefs, playing his 116th match for the Waratahs, one more than his former teammate Matthew Burke.
The Chiefs, who will have lineout general Jono Gibbes back, won’t be a pushover for the Waratahs on their home ground and the Sydney franchise will have to be in top form to put them away.
New Zealand’s Wellington Hurricanes could still finish top of the final standings with victories over the lowly Queensland Reds at home on Friday and away to the Waratahs on the last weekend.
The Hurricanes are only three points adrift of the Waratahs and Crusaders.
The ACT Brumbies can also still have a say in the final reckoning and have Wallaby centres Stirling Mortlock and Matt Giteau fit for the Highlanders at home.
It’s a game the Brumbies must win to remain on track for a fifth finals appearance in six years.
Elsewhere, the sixth-placed Coastal Sharks host the Stormers in Durban on Saturday, the Central Cheetahs take on Australia’s winless Western Force in Kimberley on Saturday, chasing their fifth victory in their maiden campaign, and the Golden Cats play Auckland Blues in Johannesburg. – AFP
