I think the Reds are a damn good chance in this game. They played bloody well against the Blues and though that team is an easy beat this year, to date, it was a good effort.
The early blitz was back to the good old days of last year and the lineout steals in the 1st half cut a few balls off the Blues.
The Reds own lineout throwing faltered in the 2nd half as did their scrum but Holmes should make a difference at scrum time on Sunday. I also liked the low tackling and the 2nd man coming into fetch.
The Crusaders shipped 33 points to the Tahs last week and in some parts of the game did not look like the old Saders. Take Freuan out of that game and they would have looked worse. The Tahs got lost on defence in the midfiled but the Reds defensive effort should feature using Ant as a shooter and work around that. By contrast the Tahs were too much on their heels and Freuan pigged out.
The Tahs denied the gain line to the Saders in the 1st half last week and the Reds should do the same by sending shooters out near the ruck and, when things are favourable, have a 2nd or 3rd guy counter rucking to at least slow the use of Saders' ball. The Saders put their shorts on one leg at a time like anybody else and slow ball is slow ball. The Reds were a bit tardy against the Blues and lost the ruck hit.
Mind you don't flood every ruck, for obvious reasons: part of the success of the Highlanders this year has been because of exquisite choices of when to flood and when not.
And kick some goals.
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