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Crusaders hire external firm to undertake autopsy of disastrous season
By Ben Smith
The Crusaders finished their season on a high with a 43-10 win over Moana Pasifika but it wasn't enough to secure playoff qualification as the Fijian Drua locked up the final spot.
Their fate was left outside their control after too many stumbles throughout the season, settling for a 4-10 record under first year head coach Rob Penney.
In his post-match interview Penney lamented the fine margins that the side has had this year, with six games decided by seven points or less and two games on full-time.
But now that the season is in the history books, the club will begin the post-mortem starting with a review by external agency Gain Line Analytics.
“We do a review. We do one every year, sometimes we get external help, and this year we will,” CEO Colin Mansbridge told media during a 20 minute interview session.
The Crusaders boss steered away from speculating on the future of Penney who is still under contract for another season.
“We will do the review,” Mansbridge said when asked on Penney's future.
“We've got to make sure we focus on doing a really quality review, it's going to be performance focussed, it will be focussed on what we can do better.
"We won't be scapegoating anyone and we won't be making any knee-jerk reactions."
Aside for conjecture around team selections, which Mansbridge said was a common issue among the players every year, there was no evidence of team unhappiness from within the squad.
"There was no evidence of dysfunction," he said.
"You go through a great season, and everybody remembers lifting the trophy, and they forget all of the grit that it's taken you to get there.
"Everyone thinks it's this wonderful, perfect experience...and they forget everything that's happened in between."
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Latest Comments
They also use a far more consistent scale.
Rugby pass seem to have a different scale for each player based on the authors expectations or how much he likes them.
Can't fathom how Moodie and Reece both were a 3.
Go to commentsYes for sure, thanks for sharing. I fully understand that both parties are better off, no one needs to lose, neither competition suffers, in fact both can be better as a result.
Too many true rugby fans (and analysts) don't understand that.
I wouldn't imagine there is a date aye. It was a long decline rugby in SA and Australia was going through, and was so bad it even effected NZ, caused them to argue to can a couple of teams. The nation of SA probably grew into it? I know I watch more of the NH now specifically because of the SR teams playing there. I actually had to mention to Nick Bishop (because of his stubborn perspective) the other day that I've never been a fan of Super Rugby, I don't think they chose the right way to go about professionalism back in 1995. Unfortunately, NZR was stuck between a rock and a hard place, because it had SA's and Australians that ran their unions by States, so we had to separate into "two or three" teams as a result. Our game is in the kak now because of it, they want to kill off the lifeblood of our National Provincial Championship. But now we might see a way out of it, so it's all good.
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