This October will mark 30 years since Sir Alex Ferguson took Manchester United to Istanbul to play Turkish club Galatasaray in a second-leg Champions League match to decide which side would go through to the quarter-finals.
The first leg at Old Trafford was drawn 3-3 and afterwards the Galatasaray manager warned that the United players and fans arriving for the return match would receive a special welcome, saying “they will be waiting for you at the airport”.
He was right; several hundred hardcore local supporters crammed into the arrivals hall holding signs saying: “Welcome to hell”, and chanting: “No way out”.
United, who won the Premiership that season, needed a win to progress that night but failed to score a goal. The match finished 0-0, Galatasaray going through on the away goal rule. Afterwards United legend Eric Cantona was allegedly punched in the face by a policeman, which sparked a brawl in the tunnel.
Those crazy days are another sport, country, culture and generation away from what will take place in Christchurch when the Blues arrive to play the Crusaders in their Super Rugby Pacific semifinal on Friday night.
Plus, there is another difference; Galatasaray were the underdogs. At Orangetheory Stadium, the defending champion Crusaders will be the favourites to beat the Blues, just as they have done twice already this season and in last year’s grand final at Eden Park.
And they will be favourites because, and this is key, their home is one of the most inhospitable places in elite rugby, especially in the playoffs.
Remarkably, they have never lost a playoff match within their boundaries (this relates to their current home in the rickety and drafty "temporary" stadium in Addington, but also their former home at Lancaster Park, plus a quarter-final in Nelson post-2011 earthquakes).
Those venues may not represent hell exactly, but they have been a graveyard for visiting teams’ hopes and dreams, the Crusaders helped by the colder and wetter conditions at this time of year which suits their pack, and a defensive system which screams, like the Galatasaray “ultras”, No Way Out.
Caleb Clarke’s impending return from injury to the left wing for the Blues will strengthen their attack, but the visitors will need Clarke to be better than he was in Christchurch a month ago when the Blues failed to score a try in a 15-3 defeat marred by poor tactical kicking.
Crusaders assistant coach Scott Hansen has said this week that he expects the Blues to kick less on Friday, but while they have arguably the best right wing in the competition in Mark Telea, plus undoubted talent in Finlay Christie, Beauden Barrett, Rieko Ioane and Zarn Sullivan in their backline, the Blues' attack has not been convincing recently.
They outscored the Waratahs five tries to two in a regulation quarter-final victory at Eden Park last weekend but were sloppy in their win at home over the Hurricanes in round 14 (and may have been in trouble if not for Telea’s freakish four-try performance) and again against the Highlanders a week later in a nervy 16-9 victory.
The Crusaders will almost definitely be without injured locks Sam Whitelock and Zach Gallagher, but, regardless, with skipper Scott Barrett and Quentin Strange in the second row the red and blacks will not be dictated to in the set piece like the Waratahs were last weekend.
And the Crusaders will not allow the Blues anywhere near the time and space the Sydneysiders provided the Blues’ star-studded backline.
Yes, Scott Robertson's men will have about 11 first-choice players out injured, but his and his team's expectations will remain the same.
As the temperatures hover just about freezing, the Blues will have to find something special as the (presumably legal) on-field hostilities reach boiling point.
Otherwise, they will join the 28 teams before them who have tried and failed. In other words, as the other signs at that airport 30 years ago said: “This is the end of the road”.
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