The two best teams in the 2022 Super Rugby Pacific competition will face off in this Saturday’s Grand Final and it’s shaping up as a potentially epic decider between the Blues and Chiefs.
A strong case can be built for either side to lift the new Super Rugby Pacific trophy with the Blues on a lengthy winning streak and the Crusaders… well they’re still the Crusaders.
We’ve crunched the numbers, analysed the stats and broken down the footage to come up with our Super Rugby Grand Final tips below.
By virtue of a 13-1 record and a 15 game winning streak, the Blues earned hosting rights for the Grand Final, not that travelling up to Eden Park will be too much of an imposition to the Crusaders however.
They have won their last six away games against the Blues and boast a 20-4 record overall against their Auckland rivals.
However, the Blues did win the regular season meeting against the Crusaders by way of a 27-23 nailbiter in April.
Over the last 12 months we have seen an evolved Blues side and they have gone to a whole other level after last year’s Super Rugby Trans-Tasman triumph.
Leon MacDonald has got this side humming and they have arguably the best attack in the competition which will need to be firing on all cylinders against a battle tested Crusaders defence.
After all, in their Semi Final win over the Chiefs, the Crusaders defence had to repel attack after attack and did so with aplomb.
However this is shaping up as the Blues year and I’ll back them to edge the Crusaders in a tight fought battle.