Braydon Ennor may have missed the entirety of last year’s Super Rugby Pacific season with an injury but the midfielder still felt the “hurt” of the Crusaders’ campaign. After seven years of championship-winning success, the Crusaders missed the playoffs altogether.
Ennor acknowledged the loss of “arguably the two greatest Super Rugby players ever” in Sam Whitelock and Richie Mo’unga, which was a hit to the team, and several injuries to other key players during the campaign were also tough to manage.
In the first match of the club’s new era without legendary coach Scott Robertson, the Crusaders fell to a 33-29 defeat to the Chiefs, which was the start of a five-match losing streak as the NSW Waratahs, Fijian Drua, Hurricanes and the Blues also beat them.
While the Crusaders broke their losing run with a 37-27 victory over the Chiefs at home, that would prove to be just four wins from 14 matches that season. It was close but the Crusaders ended up missing the playoffs after finishing ninth, just two competition points behind eighth.
“I wouldn’t say we’ve left it completely in the dust,” Ennor, who last played for the All Blacks against the Wallabies in 2023, told RugbyPass at the Super Rugby Pacific season launch in Sydney.
“Everyone’s feeling that hurt. Our fans deserve a lot more from us, our community, so we felt like we let ourselves down last year.
“We had periods where we played well but we couldn’t put through an 80-minute performance, so for us that just comes down to bonding the team together again and working from scratch again.”
With the new season less than two weeks away, the Crusaders will be counting down the days as they prepare to fight their way up to the top once again. The Crusaders will help kick off the new season when they host Kiwi rivals the Hurricanes in Christchurch on Valentines Day.
Fergus Burke, Riley Hohepa, Zach Gallagher, and Brodie McAllister are among those who left the franchise after last season, but the addition of former Wallaby James O’Connor and Wellington Lions halfback Kyle Preston is sure to turn heads.
O’Connor, 34, was unveiled as a new Crusaders recruit on October 13th. The move left the rugby world talking, with the former Queensland Reds fly-half explaining in a press release that he wanted to experience the team’s “culture and innovation.”
In the Crusaders’ pre-season clash with the Blues in Kirwee, O’Connor was named in the reserves while Taha Kemara was named in the starting side. As Ennor discussed, having the “coffee addict” in the squad is going to be a big boost for the other playmakers.
“He’s been awesome. He fits in really well,” Ennor said. “Really good, open lad. Has a few good stories for us – obviously a lot of rugby experience and wisdom that he’s happy to share. Happy to have a coffee, bit of a coffee addict to be fair so it’s not hard to get him out there.
“We’re really looking forward to having him. A really level, calm head that can help grow our first five stocks. We’ve got a really good group this year with Taha [Kemara] and Rivez [Reihana] and James.”
