‘Cold-blooded’ Crusaders laser-focused in pursuit of seventh straight crown

Coach Scott Robertson and playmaker Richie Mo’unga embraced in the aftermath of their semifinal mauling of the Blues, before quickly shifting their focus.

“One more!” they both stressed, knowing the Crusaders’ 52-15 dismantling of the Blues would mean zilch if they didn’t go on and win another Super Rugby crown.

They’ll get the chance to finish the job in Hamilton on Saturday night, when the Crusaders face the top-seeded Chiefs in what’s expected to be a gripping final at FMG Stadium Waikato.

Mo’unga isn’t satisfied with six titles in as many years. No, he wants nothing more than to go out with a seventh, before plying his trade in Japan from next year.

He used the words “cold-blooded” while dissecting the demolition job of the Blues, and even looked it as he did so matter-of-factly.

It was almost as if the six tries to two clobbering was no big deal, after finally taking to the park and executing a game Mo’unga said he played in his head 50 times during the week.

“It had been a long week, finals footy is just, man, really different. Although we’ve been here before, when you care about an outcome so much, it just really drains you mentally. Just had to be really ice-cold and cold-blooded around what it looked like, and how we could just perform at our best,” Mo’unga said.

Having turned in their best performance of the season, the depleted Crusaders will need a repeat effort, and then some, if they’re to roll the Chiefs.

Playing them in front of 23,000 fans at FMG Stadium Waikato won’t worry them in the slightest, not when they’ve shown they can win finals at Johannesburg’s Ellis Park and Auckland’s Eden Park, but the Chiefs have had their number this season.

In addition to opening the season with a 31-10 trouncing of the Crusaders in Christchurch, they rallied late to nab a 34-24 win in Hamilton in April.

That said, the Crusaders might well look at the second match and feel they should have won it, given they dominated the fixture but failed to finish chances, and lost Willi Heinz, their closing halfback, to injury during the warm-up.

As far as Blues coach Leon MacDonald is concerned, he has no doubt the Crusaders, who have won all 15 playoff games under Robertson since 2017, and will again be without more than 10 injured players, can pull it off.

“They play as a team, they are well drilled, well-organised, and they’re really clear on their roles. There is no doubt they could go and beat the Chiefs, absolutely,” he said after watching the red and blacks shred his team.

“The intensity that they played at, with Richie pulling the strings, Will Jordan chiming in from the back, there is no doubt they could do the job.”

While lock Sam Whitelock (Achilles) trained most of last week, he remains in doubt to play, while hooker Brodie McAlister will miss the decider after injuring his hamstring against the Blues.

Ioane Moananu or George Bell, who hasn’t played this year after fracturing his ankle in pre-season, will replace McAlister on the bench, as the next-man-up theme continues during what’s been an injury-plagued year.

“To see those boys step up is just really proud, we won’t use injuries as an excuse, we are quite demanding of what we want from them and that we expect high standards, regardless of if they’re first year or not,” Mo’unga said.

“When we look back in a couple of years time, we will either say we did it or we didn’t. No one will remember how many injuries or how many All Blacks we had out, the history will be done and our name will either be etched on the trophy or not. It just can’t be an excuse, we have to keep moving.

“This club has just been my whole life. I’ve given so much to this club and what I’ve got in return has just been so much more. And I know the game is just so brutal, and it just doesn’t favour any fairy-tale endings. We just have to be really clinical and really deliberate with every action and everything we do during the week.”