The Crusaders Thing

The Crusaders have met another Super Rugby final.  A sentence that, when you are honest, is not a scenario that many people warm to.

There has been quite a lot of talk over the last week as to what this means, and how we must get in behind the New Zealand team.

In reality though, this is a Franchise based competition where nationality has nothing to do with it.  And the team in question is the Crusaders.

Imagine if they were to win the title for an eight time, and what we would be subjected to.  Think of all the carry-on about how it is their dynasty.  Think of all the chest-thumping utterances about Culture.  Think of the calls o return Andy Ellis to the All Blacks, and think of talk about how they timed their run to perfection, and something

about class being permanent.

And think of Justin Marshall.

That is why we are right to be Warratahs for the week.  It will not last for just a week either, or even a month.  This will carry on for the rest of the year, and then pick up again when next season starts.  It really is a frightening prospect.

The best Super Final was, of course, that one where the Crusaders went to Canberra in 2004 and were down by five converted tries within 20 minutes and Ben Blair got hauled off in a belated show of mercy.

This was closely followed by that time the Chiefs had 60 odd points put on them by the Bulls.  Both times a New Zealand team was humiliated and it was fun to go to work the following week and enjoy the silence

But some from Canterbury have played the Patriotism card this week; if you don’t support the Crusaders this weekend then you are not a real New Zealander.  What a lot of rubbish.

This is Christchurch after all.  A city noted for its crowd booing Allan Hewson and Adam Parore.  When they were playing for New Zealand.  Even Grant Fox got a frost reception there.  A city obsessed with Carlos Spencer and Mark Carter, a city where John Hart’s horse was spat on and, for a few years there, a city that cheered on Robbie Deans’s Wallabies.  Where was the patriotism then?

And don’t bring the All Black angle into things.  There is no correlation whatsoever between Super Rugby and All Black success

Anyway you can’t have a side winning a Super Rugby competition having previously been beaten twice by the Hurricanes.