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"Do not go gentle into that good night"...

Or the rise and fall and rise and fall of the Crusaders (for a bonus point, name that programme)...
So three rounds completed, some superb footy played if you are a Chiefs and a Blues fan, and not much to show for effort for the Crusaders and the Hurricanes.

Sure, the Crusaders have only had one game, and were playing against a team that had already had a hit out in the Blues.  But.

But, it was only one game, and both sides have had plenty of warm up fixtures.  It was also not just a loss, it was a shafting.  Five, FIVE tries to zero, zip, nadda, nothing.  The Crusaders could not score a five pointer in 80 minutes of endeavour.  I think the old attack coach, Mr Gibson now in Sydney would be quietly chuckling into his Tooheys.  Mr Mauger and Mr Matson however, won't be.  Another but to add into this though, we don't know just how good this Blues defence is as yet.  The Hurricanes managed a penalty try last week, a dubious one at that, so the blues have not conceded an earned try yet this season in 160 minutes of rugby.  However, good or bad, as it stands, the Crusaders won't be happy with 80 minutes and no five pointers.

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Bart's Chiefs preview 2013

Who'd have thunk, just 12 short months ag, the Super 15 was kicking off the 2012 season, and the Chiefs, with a new coach for the first time since Adam was in nappies, were serious underdogs.  Well, they've always been serious underdogs, so that wasn't so strange.  But this time out, new coach Renie had also done a bit of a spring clean.  That in itself wasn't so unusual, the main talking point was all the players that he pulled into the set up.  Gone were the fringe Bay of Plenty players (and a lot of the the fans), gone were even some of the fringe Waikato players.  Rennie owed nothing to these boys.  But in place of these locals came a bunch of Manawatu and Hawke's Bay players.

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