The The defending champs finally gets their chance to get back into the game and all eyes will be on them to see if they can come back even better than what they were before the lockdown.
I believe that the Saders gets an relatively easy game to get back into things, they have the strongest squad in the competition and this is reflected in the 15 man team they have selected to take to the field. The team is full of All-Blacks and impressive youngsters banging on the selectors door to make their debut for the national team. It will be interesting to see if they are still a bit rusty having missed the first weekend but I’m pretty sure they have been drilled hard in the “off-season” and that their coach would have prepared them properly. I hope to see the Crusaders play as they usually do, start with a good set piece and use their forwards to pull in the defence and then spread the ball wide using their potent backs and round the defence. The key player for them is going to be Mo’unga, if he is playing well their backline is unstopabble and he almost guarantees that his team is going to keep going forward when they have ball in hand.
The Canes on the other hand is going to have to come out and show that last week was just an of day for them if they are to even stand a chance against the Crusaders. They still don’t have Jordie back for this game which is going to be a massive loss for them. I do still believe that they have a very dangerous backline, and hat they are able to run riot against any defence but they do not match other teams up front and that is where the work is done to earn the right to have good ball for the backs. I Think that if they really want to make a statement their forwards are going to have to stand up the rest of the season and show that they are able to front up against teams like the Crusaders. They do however have Ardie Savea back in the starting lineup he will have a better impact but one or two players cant carry an entire forward pack. He also still has not played allot and for me he did not play exceptionally well last week when he came on, It is going to be interesting to see if he is back to the old Savea who was New-Zealands player of the year last year.
Key match-ups:
Dane Coles vs Codie Taylor: The battle to be the starting hooker for the All-Blacks continues. This will be a very exciting match up especially if Coles demonstrates his speed again as he did last week. He is a very good hooker in the loose and gives the attacking team more options because he can run over and around players. Without ball in hand he is very effective at breakdown time in forcing turnovers.Taylor on the other hand is for me a better hooker than Coles, his line-out throws is better and he continuously does more of the grunt work. He started the last time the All-Blacks played ahead of his opponent, this fact will only fuel Coles to outplay him even more. It will be difficult to say who is going to come up trumps in this battle but it is definitely going to be great to watch these two go at it.
Teams:
Hurricanes
Crusaders
| Starting XV | ||
|---|---|---|
| Fraser Armstrong | 1 | Joe Moody |
| Dane Coles | 2 | Codie Taylor |
| Tyrel Lomax | 3 | Michael Alaalatoa |
| James Blackwell | 4 | Sam Whitelock |
| Vaea Fifita | 5 | Mitchell Dunshea |
| Reed Prinsep | 6 | Cullen Grace |
| Du’Plessis Kirifi | 7 | Billy Harmon |
| Ardie Savea | 8 | Whetu Douglas |
| TJ Perenara | 9 | Bryn Hall |
| Jackson Garden-Bachop | 10 | Richard Mo’unga |
| Ben Lam | 11 | George Bridge |
| Ngani Laumape | 12 | Jack Goodhue |
| Vince Aso | 13 | Braydon Ennor |
| Wes Goosen | 14 | Sevuloni Reece |
| Chase Tiatia | 15 | Will Jordan |
| Bench | ||
| Asafo Aumua | 16 | Brodie McAlister |
| Ben May | 17 | George Bower |
| Alex Fidow | 18 | Oliver Jager |
| Scott Scrafton | 19 | Luke Romano |
| Gareth Evans | 20 | Ethan Blackadder |
| Jamie Booth | 21 | Mitchell Drummond |
| Billy Proctor | 22 | David Havili |
| Jacobus Van Wyk | 23 | Leicester Fainga’anuku |
My Prediction:
I believe that we’ll see the Canes playing better than they did last week and being more aggressive on the offense but alas it will all be in vain against a mighty Crusaders team that looks to be the favorites for the competition (on paper). Hopefully it is going to be very fun to watch with a lot of running rugby and that the ref doesn’t slow the game down as much as they did the previous week.
Rugby dissect 
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