{"id":725748,"date":"2026-06-09T19:16:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T19:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/725748\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T19:16:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T19:16:11","slug":"ex-all-black-on-the-crusaders-quality-thats-setting-them-apart-in-super-rugby-pacific","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/725748\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-All Black on the Crusaders quality that’s ‘setting them apart’ in Super Rugby Pacific"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Barbarians<\/a><\/p>\n

Former Blues and All Blacks hooker James Parsons believes the Crusaders\u2019 improved defence is \u201csetting them apart\u201d from other teams in Super Rugby Pacific.<\/p>\n

The Christchurch-based outfit are the tournament\u2019s defending champions and after clinching an emphatic 52-31 triumph in their qualifying final against the Blues last Saturday, they will now face the Chiefs in their semi-final in Hamilton on Friday.<\/p>\n

That means that Rob Penney\u2019s troops are currently on a four-match winning streak in Super Rugby Pacific<\/a> after they also notched impressive victories the Blues, Chiefs and Hurricanes in recent weeks during the league phase of the competition.<\/p>\n

Struggled during early rounds of Super Rugby Pacific<\/p>\n

That is a far cry from their poor form during the tournament\u2019s early rounds when the Crusaders<\/a> lost five of their first nine matches.<\/p>\n

That meant that they were languishing outside Super Rugby Pacific\u2019s play-off positions during that period but they eventually got their act together and their return to form came at just the right time as they aim to defend their title.<\/p>\n

The improvement in the Crusaders\u2019 results coincided with their move to a new headquarters at the state-of-the-art 30,000-seat One New Zealand Stadium and last weekend\u2019s triumph over the Blues means the men from Christchurch have now won 33 consecutive home play-off matches in the competition.<\/p>\n

While Parsons<\/a> acknowledged that the Crusaders\u2019 improved form coincided with their move to their new indoor stadium, he feels their improvement on defence is the biggest contributing factor.<\/p>\n

Crusaders v Blues: Five takeaways as \u2018ruthless\u2019 champions, inspired by All Blacks snubs, punish \u2018truly terrible tackle\u2019 to extend insane record<\/a><\/p>\n

Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for world-class coverage you can trust.<\/p>\n

\u2018Their defence has been the most impressive\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest thing is like I look back and I was like \u2018When did their season turn around?\u2019,\u201d he told the Aotearoa Rugby Pod. \u201cObviously the roof\u2019s one thing, but I actually think their defence has been the most impressive, that\u2019s turned around the most.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the reason I say that is they lost to the Reds 31-26, then they lost to the (Western) Force 31-26.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince then, they\u2019ve only conceded above 20 points against the Chiefs, which they still won the game 36-32, but they\u2019ve conceded under 20 points. And that\u2019s how you win competitions.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we\u2019ve seen on the weekend, man, like the new rules, the style of play, the desire to attack at all costs, you know, the amount of quick throw-ins that are happening is huge.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo their defence and their ability to stop you in the 22 is I think what\u2019s setting them apart and puts them in a really, really strong position to win this comp.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Super Rugby Pacific semi-finals: Blues claim \u2018lucky losers\u2019 tag with fixtures, dates, kick-off times and how to watch confirmed<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Blues and All Blacks hooker James Parsons believes the Crusaders\u2019 improved defence is \u201csetting them apart\u201d from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":725749,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,29897,818,44,760,85,29898],"class_list":["post-725748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-crusaders","tag-home-page","tag-news","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-super-rugby"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725748","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=725748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/725749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=725748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=725748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=725748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}