This archive report was first published on 4 July 2019.
On July 4, 2019, the Canterbury Crusaders were gearing up for a showdown with the Jaguares in the Super Rugby final. The Crusaders, who were bidding for a third successive title and their 10th overall, were motivated to end the Jaguares' success story.
The Jaguares, who had reached the final in only their fourth year in the southern hemisphere competition, had been on a roll, winning their last seven games. However, coach Gonzalo Quesada downplayed talk of a history-making final victory and the relevance of statistics.
“We are trying to keep the team a little bit away from that picture of what’s happening concerning that history thing,” Quesada said. “It’s great, it’s amazing, but I think it can distract us from what we should have the focus on now — that is to keep on trying with lots of humility to improve our game.”
The Crusaders, on the other hand, had homeground advantage and impressive statistics, being equal with the Jaguares on defence while leading the way for tries scored and clean breaks. Coach Scott Robertson praised the Jaguares, saying, “They’re good. We’re really impressed with their quality of play, their variation in their style of attack. They rank really highly in all the stats, defensively they’re second in the comp, they’ve got a lot of international experience. They’re on a roll.”
For the Crusaders, 23-year-old Mitchell Dunshea replaced injured lock Scott Barrett, while new All Black Braydon Ennor partnered Jack Goodhue in the centres with Ryan Crotty sidelined by a broken thumb.
The two teams avoided each other in the regular season when the Crusaders finished top of the table with the Jaguares heading the South African conference. When the Jaguares despatched the ACT Brumbies in the semi-finals last week, they dominated, except for in the scrum, which would not have gone unnoticed by the Crusaders.
“Mostly finals are won off great defence,” Robertson said, adding the Crusaders had concentrated this week on taking the emotion out of the occasion and focusing on performance.
The Crusaders’ key motivator was helping the recovery of a city that was stunned less than four months ago when a gunman opened fire in two mosques and killed 51 Muslims. “There’s been a lot of adversity for us as a team and as a city,” Robertson said. “One thing we’ve done, and I’m really proud of, is every time we’ve played we’ve shown how much we care about (the city) and care about each other.”
