Todd Blackadder turns down Bob Dwyer’s criticism of Crusaders defence - Super Rugby News
The veteran coach of the Crusaders, Todd Blackadder, has rubbished the stern criticism about his team by former Wallabies coach, Bob Dwyer.
Dwyer alleged that the Crusaders forward pack often indulges in illegal breakdown tactics during the ongoing Super Rugby championship. Dwyer has targeted the senior players from the Crusaders before their Super Rugby 2011 decider on July 9, in Brisbane.
However, the Crusaders coach, Todd Blackadder, has responded to the attack boldly and said that his team will only concentrate on the big final.
Bob Dwyer has coached the Wallabies on several occasions and he was given charge of national Australian rugby team for the first time in 1982, where he remained in office for two years. Dwyer was also the head coach of Australia during their first ever win
at Rugby World Cup in 1991. Currently, he has been hounding Crusaders players since their semi-final against the Stormers.
He backed up the South African derby Stormers for the semi-final clash and declared them favourites. However, the Christchurch based New Zealander conference proved too strong for Stormers and defeated them by huge margin of 29-10 at Newlands on July 2.
Discarding Dwyer’s opinion about his team’s defence, the Crusaders coach said that nothing is going to detract his squads from foucsing on the important match. He further said that, "Everyone is entitled to their opinion but I am not going to get into it.
Those things will not worry or motivate us ... it is not going to change anything we are going to do."
Another challenge the Christchurch based club is facing is the of match referee, Bryce Lawrence, who is known as a stern official. Blackadder said that Lawrence will definitely have a big role in the match but his team will focus on their own game. He added
that, "We know Bryce well enough to know what he won't stand for, so we have to be really clinical. We have too much to play for. Just like last week, if we focus on what we want and what we do then the referee just gets the opportunity to facilitate."
The final of the Super Rugby championship will be played between Queensland Reds and Crusaders on July 9.
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