The Crusade might have been 14 games old by the time Andrew Philip Mehrtens made an appearance, but the freakish point-scoring All Black wizard quickly made up for lost time. Such was Mehrtens’ impact over the remainder of the Super 12 era, it was easy to see just how much the Crusaders missed the High School Old Boys pivot during the first year. By the time he was done, after the 2005 final, Mehrtens held the record for the most points by any player in Super rugby, just 10 short of the magical 1000 point barrier. He had also steered the side to four titles, perhaps most significantly breaking the ACT Brumbies’ hearts during the ‘thriller in the chiller’, at Canberra in 2000, when his long-range penalty goal just before the death clinched a 20-19 win, condemning that year’s form team to also ran status. Mehrtens also departed New Zealand shores as the All Blacks’ record point scorer.