Crusaders v Brumbies Stat Chat: A rivalry built on fine margins
Round 2 of the 2026 Super Rugby Pacific season brings one of the competition’s great Trans-Tasman battles back to Christchurch.
The Crusaders and the Brumbies simply don’t do blowouts against each other. They test each other for the full 80 minutes, and more often than not, it comes down to the finest of margins.
This Sunday at Apollo Projects Stadium, we get another crack at a rivalry shaped by small details and big moments.
Two teams, one shared trait: they know how to win.
The Brumbies spent more time on attack than any other team in 2025, while the Crusaders soaked up more defensive minutes than anyone else.
Yet even with those different approaches, they still landed on the same outcome: tries, and lots of them.
Both teams averaged 4.6 tries per match last year, finishing second-equal in the competition, and it’s a big reason why these matchups always feel tense.
The Crusaders were the best team in the competition at defending their own 22 last season, repelling 60% of opposition attacks inside the danger zone. The Brumbies sat third with a still impressive 55%.
Five percent doesn’t sound like much, but games between these two are so tight that five percent becomes everything.
And if we’re talking about tight… Remember Round 16 in Canberra last year?
Crusaders 33 – Brumbies 31.
A match decided by two points, but it wasn’t just the scoreboard that showed how close they were – the numbers backed it up everywhere you looked.
Both teams won 100% of their scrums.
Both teams won 100% of their lineouts.
Both teams produced their most accurate performance of the season in terms of errors, with the Brumbies making just 11 mistakes and the Crusaders 14.
You had two sides playing high‑quality rugby, refusing to give an inch. It was a match that told us everything we already knew: when these two meet, the margins shrink to almost nothing, and Sunday will be no different.
The Crusaders have the defensive steel, the Brumbies bring an attacking rhythm few can match. Both can score from anywhere and both can close out a match when it matters.
You stack those ingredients together and you get a match that feels like it could come down to a single moment again.
With a 3.35pm kick‑off at Apollo Projects Stadium, Round 2 gives us the perfect stage to write the next chapter. The rivalry is real, it’s intense, and the stats prove just how close this contest is destined to be.
Now all that’s missing is the noise, the energy and the belief that only Crusaders fans can bring.