Super Rugby Round 8: Crusaders ready for emotional return

Round eight of Super Rugby sees the Crusaders returning to Christhurch for an emotionally-charged home coming. Debate has raged around the name and imagery of the Crusaders, but the side has continued to toil away and remain an image of strength for the Canterbury region.

The action kicks off in Dunedin and concludes in Pretoria with the Bulls hosting the Jaguares who return to the road after a short reprieve at home.

Read on for some of the big storylines across the three conferences.

AUSTRALIAN CONFERENCE

Be wary of a Sunwolves team with a point to prove

Only last year the Sunwolves were seen as an easy five points in the bag. This year, the Japanese-based side has proven they're a side to be wary of, especially for the tight Australian conference.

Just a month ago, the Sunwolves shocked the competition - and especially the Chiefs - when they won their first game on the road. While the Chiefs had hardly been lighting up the competition this year, nothing could be taken away from the Sunwolves and just how well they played and how entertaining they could be with ball in hand.

Before that, they came within a point of a win over the Waratahs in Japan, but the Tahs managed to pull off the greatest of escapes. Two weeks ago, they came within a whisker of downing the Reds in Tokyo, with a Hamish Stewart last-minute penalty securing a Reds victory. And last week they put a high-flying Waratahs side back in their box.

Coming off the high of defeating the Crusaders in Sydney a week earlier, the Waratahs had puffed up chests as they took their home game to Newcastle for the first time. They were soon deflated after the Sunwolves made them pay the price for a sloppy and complacent performance, with winger Semisi Masirewa a standout for the visitors.

Melbourne Rebels have shown they won't make the same mistakes the Waratahs did, making just one change to their winning starting XV from last week, with Jermaine Ainsley to start ahead of Sam Talakai.

Unwilling to rest Wallabies players, Dave Wessels is right to be wary of a wounded Sunwolves. After what happened to the Force, he and some of his Rebels stars understand just how it feels to get cut from the competition.

"Having been in this situation myself where a team is cut from the competition, it's a real galvanising thing."

Rising to the top of the Australian Conference following their win over the Reds last weekend, the Rebels will be ruing their lost opportunities on the road in South Africa, and know just how important this week's result is.

One thing Wessels will be desperate to avoid is the massive penalty counts they racked up on their tour, especially when facing Sunwovles sharpshooter Hayden Parker, who is the most accurate goal-kicker in the world.

Super Rugby's cellar-dwellers have a point to prove now that it's official they wont be part of the competition after the completion of the 2020 season. They continue to prove they won't die wondering and they're a side you should definitely be wary of.

NEW ZEALAND CONFERENCE

Crusaders ready for emotionally-charged return

On Friday 15th of March, the Christchurch community suffered a horrific terror attack on two mosques that saw 50 people murdered with another 39 people wounded. This week the Crusaders, a side seen as a symbol of strength for the whole Canterbury region, return for their first home game since the tragic event.

A moment's silence will be observed, while the usual pre-match entertainment of sword-wielding horseman have been ditched amidst the debate that continues to rage around a potential name and imagery change for Super Rugby's most successful side.

While focus has turned towards off field issues, the Crusaders have remained a beacon of hope for a community that is yet again, trying to rebuild. It's not an unfamiliar position for the side, with the team stepping up in 2011 following the deadly earthquake that almost destroyed the city on the South Island, and made it to within a try of securing a title in a year that they could have easily sat out.

"Its been another really tough period for our great city," Mooar told reporters on Thursday. "It's uber important for us to play for our community and then to see the community give back to us as well - it just creates a really nice energy that we actually end up being in this together and we're all one team."

But none of those off-field issues will be on the player's minds, with all eyes across Super Rugby set to focus on the competition's top side and how they respond to the highly emotional event.

Out of respect for the victims, the Crusaders match against the Highlanders scheduled for the day following the shooting was cancelled, while the side were far from their best and clearly impacted by emotion in their match against the Waratahs the following week, where they fell to their first loss in over 12 months. Last week, however, they looked close to their best as they took advantage of a sluggish Beauden Barrett and put four tries on the Hurricanes.

"(We can) go out and put on a performance and allow people to take a couple of hours out of the stuff that's been happening and put a smile on faces and just have a time enjoying themselves watching us go about our work," Mooar said. "It's been really clear when we've won a trophy over the last couple of years it's been a trophy for the people as much as ourselves."

The Crusaders will take no chances this week, though, naming one of their strongest sides of the year with their All Blacks front row making their first appearance of the year. Owen Franks, Joe Moody and Codie Taylor have all been named to start in what's a huge boost for their scrum and lineout, and in what's already an emotional night, Franks will reach the 150 cap milestone he's been chasing for several weeks.

The king of false starts, Franks was named to play the Waratahs and the Hurricanes, before he was scratched ahead of both matches due to a niggling neck injury that's unlikely to stop him this week though.

Despite falling to just the one loss so far this season, the Crusaders scrum hasn't been as strong as previous years and the return of their All Blacks front row is sure to see a return to dominance, and it sits alongside their lineout where they're looking to make significant improvement, especially after a penalty riddled display against the Hurricanes last weekend.

Unbeaten at home for 19-years against the Brumbies and in front of what's sure to be sell-out crowd in Christchurch, the stage is set for an emotional return.

SOUTH AFRICAN CONFERENCE

Ch-ch-changes

Change is the order of the day for the South African Super Rugby teams in Round 8, with all four coaches making key alterations to their starting XVs.

The Bulls have made six changes and a positional switch for the visit of the Jaguares, with key backs Handre Pollard and Jesse Kriel the first Springboks players rested this year explicitly according to SA Rugby's collective player management plan designed to put national team interests above Super Rugby ambitions ahead of the World Cup. Hooker Schalk Brits, suspended for four weeks for his part in the fist fight with Sharks counterpart Akker van der Merwe last week, is also a key absentee as it means the Bulls are left with Duane Vermeulen alone of their core leadership group.

Stormers coach Robbie Fleck has made seven changes to his starting line-up to face Queensland Reds at Suncorp Stadium on Friday, with five in the pack and three in the front-row; the key changes, however, are in the second-row and the backrow, where Eben Etzebeth and Pieter Steph du Toit are absent respectively for reason of injury and attending the birth of a child. No doubt du Toit's absence, in a case of smart player management, will count as rest according to SA Rugby's plans, but we're as yet uncertain whether injury counts as rest in New Zealand, Australia or South Africa.

The Sharks have made two changes to the starting side to face the Lions at Emirates Airline Park in Johannesburg, with Curwin Bosch replacing Aphelele Fassi and Kerron van Vuuren replacing van der Merwe, but the two key selections are of Tendai Mtawawira, who will become South Africa's most-capped Super Rugby player with his 157th cap, and Robert du Preez, who could easily have been scapegoated for his missed goals in the defeat by the Bulls last week.

The Lions, meanwhile, have made five changes to their starting side that defeated the Sunwolves two weeks back before the bye. Of those five changes, two are notable. Cyle Brink makes his first start since sustaining a freak knee injury during Springboks training, and his return is timely given the issues the Lions have experienced in the backrow specifically. But it is Swys de Bruin's selection of Springboks winger Aphiwe Dyantyi at outside centre that has caught the eye if not caused the raising of eyebrows.

Dyantyi has had a patella problem this season, and he returned to action with a 20-minute cameo at outside centre off the bench against the Sunwolves in Singapore, where he impressed and played a key part in setting up a try for Lionel Mapoe. But this will be a hugely different task lining up against Lukhanyo Am, whose sensational form this season surely has Springboks coach Rassie Erasmus with a decision to make between him and Kriel in the No. 13 jumper.

De Bruin is unlikely to have selected Dyantyi at 13 to test him there to see if Erasmus has another option in the Test arena, although it's been reported that "the idea originated in conversations between" the pair, but he expressed full confidence in the decision when asked at a Lions press conference this week.

"He's a footballer," de Bruin said of the Springboks winger.

"He's comfortable out wide and in the centres, and, if you remember, he started out at flyhalf."

That's all true, of course, but outside centre is often described as the toughest position to defend, and Dyantyi, whose defensive positioning was found wanting on occasions last season faces a genuinely tough assignment in Am.

The Sharks need to win in Johannesburg, as they 'boast' a 0-3 win-loss record against South African opposition this season, and they seem certain to send traffic down Dyantyi's channel; that traffic is unlikely to be decisive in the grand scheme of things, but it's certainly likely to be the most interest micro-battle of this fixture.