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Crusaders to Chase History against the Force – Super rugby’s first ever 100 beckons!
April 1, 2007, c/o Crusaders website
The Western Force is the only side in the history of Super rugby that the Crusaders have yet to beat.
Should the six-time champions claim that success on Saturday night at Jade Stadium, they will become the first super side in history to achieve 100 competition wins, playing in their 148th Super rugby match – the most by any participant.
The Force held the Crusaders to an exciting 23-23 draw during the foundation clash in Perth last year, narrowly failing to hold on after having roared out to a 20-8 halftime advantage before a stunned crowd at Subiaco Oval.
While the visitors ended up out-scoring the home side three tries to two on the night – with No 8 Mose Tuiali’i, winger Rico Gear and fullback Leon MacDonald all touching down - it was the Force who were left lamenting what might have been, after a TMO decision went against them over the Crusaders goal-line late in the contest.
Just under a year on from that exciting night in Perth, the Crusaders bagged win number 99 last evening in Sydney against the New South Wales Waratahs.
That the Waratahs should kick start a potentially historic week for the Crusaders was perhaps fitting, as they were the Crusaders’ first ever victims in Super rugby, back in the inaugural year when the side closed out a 21-16 victory in Christchurch.
Justin Marshall and Mark Mayerhofler scored the tries for the Crusaders on that occasion – March 29, 1996 – in what represented the fifth competition match played by the franchise.
Although the Crusaders beat just the Waratahs and the Hurricanes in the first year of operations, their fortunes have improved to such an extent in the time since, that they approach Super rugby’s first century 10 wins to the good of the Blues – who have the next best victory tally, with 89.
Win number 10 for the Crusaders was achieved in the third season, 38-26 against the ACT Brumbies in Timaru. Later that year, win 17 was secured against the Blues in the 1998 Super 12 final, with the 20-13 success breaking a 20-match unbeaten home run for the Auckland-based side. This is a record the current Crusaders outfit has subsequently bettered, with the most recent home success against the Stormers being the team’s 24th in a row since February 27, 2004.
It shows just how dominant the Crusaders have been as a Super rugby force in recent years that while it took until the seventh Super 12 before they raised 50 wins, just five competitions on, they now stand poised for three figures.
The Crusaders 50th win was claimed 48-20 against the Hurricanes at Westpac Stadium in Wellington, three weeks prior to their completion of Super rugby’s only perfect season – in 2002 when all 13 matches were won.
Three years later, in 2005, win number 75 was raised when the Crusaders pummeled the Stormers 51-23 in Cape Town.
The side started the 12th Crusade with six wins required for the hundred, but have now whittled that figure down to one, with the last three wins being claimed in succession.
If John Mitchell’s Western Australians are to thwart the Crusaders’ bid to reach the landmark this weekend, they must achieve an outcome that has been all too infrequent for visiting Australian teams to Jade Stadium in Super rugby.
Australian visitors have won just four matches in 12-years of trying against the Crusaders in Christchurch – with the ACT Brumbies getting home in 1996 and 2000, the Queensland Reds in 1999 and the NSW Waratahs in 2004.
* Other significant victories (and their win numbers) achieved by the Crusaders during the first 12 years of Super rugby are as follows: 1999 Super 12 final win versus the Highlanders (win number 26), 2000 Super 12 final win versus the ACT Brumbies (win number 36), biggest ever competition win, 96-19 versus NSW Waratahs in 2002 (win number 51), 2002 Super 12 final win versus the ACT Brumbies (win number 53), 2005 Super 12 final win versus NSW Waratahs (win number 81), 2006 Super 14 final win versus Hurricanes (win number 94).
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CHEERLEADERS ROCK!!! 
LMAO! ... no but seriously ... I dont think the crusaders will be able to pull it off!!! The force will be too strong!
Originally Posted by Lonzy
