Apocalypse now: Blues eviscerated by Crusaders

Replacement player for the Blues Marcel Renata reacts after the final whistle at Orangetheory Stadium in Christchurch.
Photo: www.photosport.nz / John Davidson

Opinion: If that’s the last time Scott Robertson gets to coach the Crusaders on home turf, what a way to go out. After a week of quiet confidence around the Blues and their charge to another Super Rugby final, instead they were introduced to a world of blood and fire in Christchurch and ripped apart for a 52-15 loss.

This was the Crusaders’ statement of statements. A truly dominant performance that even the most ardent of haters couldn’t help but admire, if nothing else than for the ferocity alone.

That introduction came early. Just like last weekend against the Drua, the Crusaders went straight into their work, flying into rucks with almost demented vigour. That was to be expected against the Fijians, who were always going to find the climate adjustment tricky. The Blues, on the other hand, knew exactly what they were walking into.

Which is why it made the 32-3 halftime scoreline such a shock. By that stage, Braydon Ennor had made a pretty solid case for being an All Black starter, Tom Christie one to be selected, while Leicester Fainga’anuku once again underlined just how mad a situation it is that he won’t be playing in New Zealand next season.

Braydon Ennor eludes Mark Telea on his way to the line.
Photo: www.photosport.nz / John Davidson

And then there was Richie Mo’unga. Presuming the Crusaders meet the Chiefs next weekend in the final, these two games were essentially All Black trials for the number 10 jersey.

Mo’unga’s got a firm grip on it right now after completely overshadowing Beauden Barrett, with the former two-time World Player of the Year looking bereft of ideas and struggling with back-foot ball from a beaten forward pack.

Beauden Barrett was outplayed by the Crusaders first five Richie Mo’unga.
Photo: www.photosport.nz / John Davidson

Really though, the match said an awful lot about the now very aptly named Blues as well. To say they played badly is making the word ‘played’ do an awful lot of heavy lifting, given that there was little evidence of many of them even doing that.

It felt like they were an hour late to their most important game of the season both mentally and physically, but even then it’s unlikely they would have been able to do much against the Crusaders’ onslaught anyway.

It would be interesting to know just exactly what was said in the respective sheds before the match. Given just how wildly different the attitudes of both teams were, passive versus intensely, terrifyingly, violently aggressive, it’s hard to pinpoint just how Leon MacDonald and his team got it so wrong.

Dalton Papalii is probably the only player who can feel any sort of accomplishment after last night, but even his futile commitment to hitting rucks in a way reflects poorly on the Blues, because it showed just how little effort his team-mates were putting in in comparison.

This was a masterclass in psychological domination by the Crusaders. They’ve made their creaky, shambolic mess of a stadium a place to be feared in knockout games, somewhere that teams go to die. If the Brumbies can pull off an upset tonight against the Chiefs, they’ll find themselves in the same sort of atmosphere next weekend.

But dead is exactly the right way to describe a Blues season that often flattered to deceive. They were not helped by the constant distraction of MacDonald’s future career plans, nor an often misfiring attack that relied heavily on individual brilliance over cohesive shape.

The Blues had some success, notably two impressive wins over the Hurricanes, but really they only beat the teams they were expected to in 2023.

If you were picking an All Black squad tomorrow off the basis of that semifinal it would be difficult to make a case for any of the Blues players being in it.

The bad news for them is that tomorrow is exactly when Ian Foster is doing just that.