{"id":506983,"date":"2026-02-27T06:28:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T06:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/506983\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T06:28:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T06:28:08","slug":"crusaders-conscious-its-easy-to-fall-out-amid-early-woes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/506983\/","title":{"rendered":"Crusaders conscious ‘it’s easy to fall out’ amid early woes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Christian Lio-Willie admits it\u2019s been a\u00a0\u201ctough couple of weeks\u201d for the Crusaders, who have two games in the loss column two weeks into the 2026 Super Rugby Pacific<\/a> season.<\/p>\n

But the reigning champions will have to make running repairs with no mercy shown from the upcoming schedule, which includes a date with their 2025 final opponents, the Chiefs, on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

The Hamilton-based outfit have won their two Kiwi derbies to start the year, and will host the Crusaders<\/a> in a fixture that always pulls in the punters, especially if the Waikato<\/a> faithful smell blood in the water.<\/p>\n

But the Crusaders are clear on the areas for improvement needed, with accuracy an obvious work-on after 41 turnovers lost in the opening two rounds. But Lio-Willie says there\u2019s another key area his team must set the tone.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d just say winning the physicality battle,\u201d he told Sport Nation. \u201cThe Chiefs<\/a> are a massive physicality team, and they love the breakdown, so if we don\u2019t match them there and if we don\u2019t take it to them first, that\u2019s where we get punished.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think as well, making sure that we go out and (strike) first and not have to absorb it, because once the Chiefs get a roll on, as we can see, they can punish us.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, the physicality around the breakdown is definitely something that you\u2019ve got to nail against a team like the Chiefs.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team\u2019s set piece is traditionally one of the best in the competition, but in 2026, the lineout has the lowest success rate of any team so far. Lio-Willie says the structures are there; it\u2019s just on the players to get them right.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the main thing, our execution. I think we\u2019ve got some great plans, with the likes of Antonio (Shalfoon) and Jamie (Hannah) running the show, so I think it\u2019s definitely just down to our execution and connection between the hookers and jumpers and lifters.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the only thing that\u2019s let us down, it\u2019s just our execution and our skill set. I think once you get that right, once you tidy that up, we\u2019ll definitely get back on the horse a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Losing when there are championship expectations is tough for any team, and in such a tight competition, there\u2019s only so much room for error.<\/p>\n

But the Crusaders are determined to grow closer through the adversity rather than splinter.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough the few events that have happened, we\u2019ve made sure to get tighter and connected even more. We know that it\u2019s easy to fall out, especially with the two rounds that\u2019ve just happened.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we\u2019ve definitely kept tight, especially with the wider group coming in. We\u2019ve had a good social committee that\u2019s set up a few things and a few events this week. So we\u2019re definitely kept tight.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Christian Lio-Willie admits it\u2019s been a\u00a0\u201ctough couple of weeks\u201d for the Crusaders, who have two games in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":506984,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-506983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=506983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/506984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=506983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=506983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=506983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}