After putting in a poor performance against the Force, the players know what they have to do in our remaining games and that’s win.
Unforced errors cost us dearly in Perth. It was a game we should have won but we didn’t so we just have to take the lessons from it and move on.
Us coaches sat down with the players and had a good discussion about things. We’ve been making too many mistakes but we’ve been getting away with it to some extent until last weekend.
The reality is that we have to pick up some competition points in order to make the play-offs and we’re looking forward to putting things right against the Stormers in Cape Town.
It’s captain Richie McCaw’s 100th game for the Crusaders this weekend which is a milestone all the players want to honour with a good performance. Richie had a fine game last weekend. He took a knock to his side during the Force match and has been taking it easier this week but he should be good to go on Saturday morning (NZ time).
Richie’s 100th game will obviously be celebrated by the players and management after this match but there will be one or two things planned for our next home game – the final round-robin match of the season against the Brumbies at AMI Stadium on May 14. Make sure you’re there to share the moment. Richie has been a fantastic player for the Crusaders over the years and deserves all the support you can give him.
We flew from Durban to Cape Town yesterday in preparation for the match. We stopped over in Durban from Perth for a few nights as it’s a good place to train and it breaks the journey up a bit.
The Stormers are in a similar position to us. We’re both on 34 competition points, but they’re one place above us in second due to their slightly better points differential. That’s been helped by their defence, which is the second best in the competition behind the first-placed Bulls.
The other thing we have in common with the Stormers is that they need to win too so there’s immense pressure on both teams. The Rebel Sport Super 14 is a great competition isn’t it? If you’re not quite on your game you will get beaten by anyone and I’m sure that with three rounds to go there will be a few more surprises to come.
Corey Flynn and Jared Payne have joined us in South Africa. Corey hasn’t played for a few weeks since fracturing a bone in his ankle but he got through 40 minutes in the weekend for his Sydenham club team. Jared got a knock to the head in the match against the Cheetahs a couple of weeks ago but he’s back raring to go. We have our full complement of 26 in our touring squad now and it’s good to have those experienced players on board.
The reality is that our destiny is still in our hands in this competition so we still have everything to play for. We’re looking forward to the challenge. We owe it to ourselves and all our supporters around the world – including here in South Africa.