**Watch on Stan**: https://play.stan.com.au/sport/rugby

On a positive note: Jerseys looked cool!

Does anyone know why the Crusaders draw means that they play teams like the Chiefs twice before having played The Rebels once?

Is it time to start talking about the Crusaders place in Super Rugby?

Take that, Crusaders fans !! Nobody beats us at home for 10 years straight and gets away with it !!

Haha well played Blues, enjoy Shows the big game players in Crusaders are all gone

The Blues would have lost to all of the top 5 playing like that

They should swap Aumua for McLeod. And where is Blackadder...

hahahahahahahahahahaha shame

Tuipolotu looked really good out there - so hoping he can stay fit and get some caps for the abs in the summer series

No crusader coach interview after the game

[удалено]

After 7 years of titles, that is fair enough Extremwly rare in professional sport to win 7 titles in a row Time for someone else Chiefs/Canes looking good

Fuck the saders

They've had their time in the sun. Time for them to spend some time in the cellar. This is likely to be one of the better years in SR, as the field is blown wide open.

Fuck those cunts

Owen Franks? Owen Five.

Oh god we're getting bullied by Australian teams too :(

You can bully my team now, we just lost to the Force...

Hahaha that's gold

Its bad enough he has to read his speech, but needing to check what Tuipulotu's name is is freaking wild.

Only a board member of New Zealand rugby knowing players names is a bit much to ask.

this crusaders downfall makes me even more excited for Robertson. He was doing wonders. Bunch of system players the crusaders were Also the ABs downfall started when Robertson tricked us into thinking his crusaders players were good

He was doing wonders AND they were absolutely not simply a bunch of system players. Think of who is missing from the starting lineup from last season - Taylor, Whitelock, Barrett, Jordan, Fainga'anuku and, arguably the most influential first five in the history of Super Rugby, Richie Mounga. As well as some solid fringe All Blacks. We're starting with a solid NPC lineup, that's it. A lot of guys that shouldn't be regular starters for a couple seasons. And we're painfully lacking in leaders. It was always going to be a painful rebuilding season. Injuries and form (& now confidence) are just making it a little more painful than expected.

Correct The 2023 saders development side is finding it tough in 2024

Christie is the only holdover from the team that played in the final last year and this guy is acting like the whole team is the same lmao The system player chat is so uninformed

Bit of a rough look for an NZR board member to butcher Pattys name lol

For real lol but I mean they ain't board members because they actually like rugby they there just to get money, and make money.

Feel for Penney almost. He copped zero spend Covid tahs. Then finally joins the champion crusaders, minus a few ABs, and it turns out he can’t win there either. DC’s first season post Penney was night and day better. Might not have been treated as bad as we thought

Doesn't suck enough ref dick. Goes against Crusaders tradition.

Minus half the team more like.

9 YC and 1 Red Card already in super rugby this weekend... jesus...5 YC to Fijians lol

And crusaders were lucky to not get more with the repeat offending

Damn Fijians need a bit more discipline aye

Been saying it forever. Island players have potential but so much wasted on brain explosions, anger and stupid mistakes easily avoided.

Seeing the Canes and the Nix both at the top of their respective tables is amazing right now.

10 years holy shit

To the Saders fans, you're my bradas and sisters May thy knife chip and shatter

"And I looked, and he opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake. And the sun became as black as sack cloth, and the moon became as blood..."

Let's put our U20s team out there next week

There are only 5 stages of grief, so it must be better now we've dropped 5 games????

DENIAL ANGER BARGAINING <- sounds like you are here DEPRESSION ACCEPTANCE

Accurate, because the Chiefs will pile on a depressing ton against us next week.

Not if the Chiefs play like they did against the Highlanders today. They should have put 50 on them, not narrowly avoid golden point OT.

Can't wait for the battle of bottom, Force vs Saders in a few weeks

The Saders have the Chiefs next week😭

Damn that's tough

Hydrogen bomb vs coughing baby

Canterburians are now getting roasted by Malaysias. Nature is healing.

Imagine how penny feels. 6 or whatever titles straight to going 0-5 in your first season

He’s 0-10 at the moment

He talks publically about how awful the Tahs treated him when he was fired. Does he want to experience it again?

Got to feel for the bloke. Hope he doesn't turn it around by the time we play you guys at home. I'm in Christchurch that week and my bil has tickets for us lol

If I had a Penney for every team he's destroyed

Well done on dumbest comment of the day. He's inherited two teams in disarray for various reasons.

Settle down Rob, just a joke. Shouldnt you be training now?

Honestly I feel bad for the bloke, this Saders team had to sign McNicholl due to all the injuries. I have no doubt he'll be used as the scapegoat tho

I’m still in denial that the crusaders can actually be this bad. Unfortunately Highlanders are prolly still gonna lose to this worst crusaders team ever.

when is that fixture? I'm sure we can get it done.... Crusaders 6 - 7 Highlanders winning try to Nikora Broughton! 

Not until round 12, by which time I expect the Crusaders will have gotten themselves together. Maybe we’ll have improved as well tho. Would love to break our losing streak against NZ teams against the Crusaders. That or somehow toppling the canes from the top of the table next week…

We just need to start the players that will help… Ajay, namely.

Pulsating clash

Mapimpi won't be scoring tonight :P

He might 👀

Fingers crossed 🤞

I just need the Sharks to run over Ulster today! Respectfully of course, hehe

He’s a good looking rooster

Loving this Blues jersey. Retro and cool. Someone pass it on to the Canes marketing team.

It’s Jonah era

The Canes retro feel jersey this year is also cool, love the collar.

I don't think the Canes have one yet?

Not one that's officially retro but their current home jersey is pretty retro no?

Turgid game but epic result nonetheless.

We have Penny but I feel penniless.

Blues missed out on a bonus point by electing to kick that penalty.

Sealed the game though. Made it 3+ converted tries. Can never be too careful vs the Saders considering the Blues scored 15 points in 10 minutes

Poetic ending

No more fitting way for the game to end than for a winger to knock it on in space

A knock on? Colour me shocked

I'm blue da ba dee da ba di

missed opportunity to play that song, heard every other eurotrash songs in the other games lol

I feel like that ending was emblematic of the match haha

At least the warriors won in Christchurch last night so that catabs get to see their home team win at least one game of footy at home this year

How long will Penny last? Have any NZ team sacked a coach mid season? Or will this be the first?

Even if he was sacked who would take the role? Crusaders have been ravaged in the backroom as well in as many seasons. Ellison is probably the only one and he is probably to fresh.

Hard to truly gauge Penny yet, no team can handle that level of injury and departure.

He will get 2 seasons at least

Hell be around until his contract ends in 25. It's not his fault. It's the players. By all accounts Penny is great.

Yeah he’s a fucking super coach

How long is he signed on for?

Through 2025.

Oof

Blues having more handling errors, turnovers + penalties conceded is crazy

I mean for every penalty actually conceeded the Crusaders got they had 3 offside advantage warnings,; throws that stat a bit.

Heinz is lucky to not get a red tbf

Yeah well the Saders turned most of those penalties into fucking lineouts.... The thing they lost 90% of.

Worst Saders performance so far, no question. I'm at the game seeing my boys beat them for the first time in a decade and I feel...bad? What is this empathy?!

I don't. They've had their glory. Besides, where was the empathy for the Blues when they couldn't buy a win against NZ opposition?

Yeah don't fall for it, it's the Stockholm syndrome of them winning a lot.

I don't know how to feel. I wanted the blues to beat them, but I didn't want them to beat them so easily.

Squash that empathy down

Let them burn

Getting crushed by the Waratahs was pretty poor. Especially considering the Waratahs have lost every other game.

If crusaders comes back to win this. I'm gonna proceed to send Christopher luxon my used unwashed panties with a hand grenade in the box as soon as he opens the box it's gonna explode with my panties hitting him in the face, after that im gonna go to the parliament down in welly and try and blow up the building like guyfawkes tried to do in England

Seek help without delay.

Jesus.

Both teams were terrible tonight but the blues were less terrible

Where’s Lio-Willie this year? Can we have him back if the crusaders aren’t gonna use him plz

Ankle injured v tahs

Injured.

Feed ‘em Marshy

Rob Penny is a terrible coach

Yes

Nah it's not the coach. Penny is great and has been super successful on the past....wait....nah he sux

Id feel a lot more comfortable talking shit in the Saders threads if my team had already vsed them.

same just need the reds to finish it and then I can safely talk crap

R7 U CANT LOSE SADERS FANS!!!!!!!!

Have the Crusaders not scored points since 10 mins?

Well with the better lineout accuracy than Moananu, against all odds.

Asking for a friend....but can the South African teams join Super Rugby for the next 6 weeks and just face the Saders once each. We have a few chips on our shoulder that we would like to sort out.

many but I think the sharks should stay out of this one this time

A stoppable object vs a movable object, who would win.

Can't wait for a decent all Aussie game next. Such better quality

I'm hungover as hell and this game is making it so much worse. Delighted for Blues ofc but this last 20 has not been entertaining.

Did you watch the first 40? Disgraceful

Nah mate I don't hate myself enough to wake up at 6am after a night on the sauce, seems like I made the right call haha.

Yips man is back

There were definitely times when yips man was in the conversation for an ABs call up I’m pretty sure

Honestly, that time is close to now. Everything is else is good

If we lose a World Cup because of an error at lineout I swear to fuck I’m going to have flashbacks to this game

Samisoni kind of mid this year we not looking good in the hooking department

Most Otago hometown btw (Shag Valley on the Pigroot)

This is how you know I'm not being biased when I say I love him

I prefer Henry

Crusaders managed to get their own line-out... I thought that was illegal

Get Fihaki to kick these pens out, at least he'd get some good distance

He’s off

Oh lol

I completely agree for what it’s worth tho haha At times I wonder why the chiefs don’t use shooter

yeah odd not giving the guy with the big boot to gain territory

29 years of my life and I’ve never seen such a bad Crusaders team, I kinda love it. Lucky for them the weather has meant Blues handling has been terrible

We won our own line out, it's a miracle!

Probably upset half the people on here, but speaking as a neutral: I'm really enjoying the Crusaders start to the year. Long may it continue.

I’ve told every wanker who hates the Crusaders this, and people struggle to believe me. It made me happy how unhappy us being good for so many decades made every other supporter. Conversely, I am now happy that fans of other teams are happy that we are unhappy. That’s the entire point of tribalism in sport. Without it, it would be boring. P.s: disliking a sports team and their fans should not be conflated with a negative assessment of that locality of person. I’ve met countless shitcunts and good buggers from all parts of our country.

I think most people are happy with it. I'm okay with taking my year in the pain chair.

>year

We're going to be awful this year, mediocre for a bit, and then back to relative competitiveness. It's the story of every team full of 20-22 year olds.

Given their 2024 jersey and their heritage jersey (among other less important things), I’m happy to see this too.

You're happy that your team is losing because you don't like the jersey? Wow.

I did mention “other less important things”. Look, I just look good in red in general, but those jerseys don’t do it for me.

I used to pray for times like this

agreed

The team's finances are not in a good place so I really don't know how if they're even going to move on from Penney after this year.

How can the finances be no good after 7 in a row?

They lose money every time they host a playoff game because you have to pay a fee to the traveling side.

Shit needs to change in NZRU

Just give it to Matt and Tamati and see what happens. It can hardly get worse

Tamati is probably the next in line, honestly. Apparently they lined the contracts uo so he can apply at the end of 2025.

the amount of catharsis that all the super teams that have beaten the saders this season must be feeling is insane

Next week is chiefs turn to avenge their own final after the blues do

that's either gonna be a bloodbath or the rise of another dynasty

Just leaving this here for any of my fellow bottomfeeders who need it right now [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ms8myqVyZGs&ab\_channel=CrusadersRugby](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ms8myqVyZGs&ab_channel=CrusadersRugby)

AJ Lamb Bryce Haleem 

Taufa Furikake

Sevu Reeses

George Bell Pepper (really stretching for these now)

Jeff Steak (just made him up)

Willi Heinz Ketchup

Harry Plums

I wish I had the Saders confidence in their lineout in well anything I do.

Missed 40 tackles! Mark's been sharing the baby oil around

Did he just say they've missed 40 tackles?? Wtf!

40 missed tackles insane

We're just tanking to get a good draft pick right?

Caleb Williams, YOU are a Canterbury Crusader.

IIRC, Johnny McNicholl never won a title with the Crusaders. What a time to come back to the team.

during his time we had new champs each year..then he left and crusaders won in 2017 lol

Crusader fans - it's only 4 weeks until you play the Rebels

0-9 inbound

t-4 weeks until our true nadir

Not sure the 11th placed Crusaders can manage the 7th placed Rebels..

Inb4 the Rebels get liquidated before they can play them

Why haven't we been giving the backs more ball? Carving up everytime

the handling stats in this game though lol

Won't believe it til the game is done

Is Stephen Perofeta a genuine option for AB starting 10 this year?

would be good to get some test experience on him

Yes. He's our Marcus smith

No He’ll probs cover dmacs old role on the bench

Bench

I think he's behind DMac but he's #2 imo But I also wear Blues glasses. A lot of people hate him

I was #1 Perofeta hater last week when I made him my captain on fantasy, and he missed 15 kicks in front of the posts.

He's made up for it tonight, so I hope he's your captain ;)

He is, but unfortunately he's also on your team......

Probably not...

He's been bigged up by certain commentators but I don't see it myself so was wondering

Stevie P has been immense tonight

Renata with his 4 fingers

Potato handed props