The last one might just be the sweetest for Scott Robertson.
The Crusaders head coach has always maintained that his first in 2017 against the Lions in Johannesburg is the most special of his six (before tonight’s unlikely and occasionally brutal seventh), but, well, this was presumably something else entirely.
Codie Taylor, who scored two tries in the Crusaders’ 25-20 victory tonight at Waikato Stadium, said his side were aiming for heaven this season but had to get through hell to get there and rarely have such appropriate words been said after such a match.
They were patched up and quite literally held together with sticky tape. Sam Whitelock’s Achilles remained a factor even in the minutes before kick-off but he got the all clear.
Many other Crusaders’ All Blacks were ruled out in the weeks and months before this and yet despite the Chiefs beginning the season in February by beating the red and blacks in Christchurch and doing it again in Hamilton in April, the near perennial champions did it when it mattered.
So when Leicester Fainga’anuku won the turnover to all but guarantee the Crusaders their seventh straight championship victory, and Richie Mo’unga kicked the resulting penalty and leaped into Whitelock’s arms at the final whistle, the only variable was whether Robertson, the other departee, would actually dance after the final dance. He did, of course.
Dancing aside, the result meant that grinding pragmatism won the day over attacking ambition, but few could argue that the Crusaders didn’t deserve to win.
They outscored the Chiefs three tries to two and while Taylor’s double came from lineout drives, Mo’unga’s was a piece of brilliance (although it didn’t compare with Shaun Stevenson’s or Emoni Narawa’s; the former a counter-attacking treat and the latter a set piece masterclass).
And, crucially, they kept their discipline far better than the hosts, who had three players yellow carded; Anton Lienert-Brown and Luke Jacobson in the first half and Sam Cane for the final 10 torrid minutes.
Damian McKenzie, Stevenson and Narawa were constant threats and the momentum was all behind the Chiefs with 30 minutes remaining as they held a 20-15 lead.
But somehow, almost through will power alone – much of it the astonishing Scott Barrett’s – the Crusaders clawed their way back and the result was virtually inevitable once Cane was yellow carded.
It was a final of ebbs and flows and occasionally outright brutality and not all of it legal and it would be remiss to gloss over a significant incident in the first half which may remain an issue for a few days yet.
And that was Lienert-Brown’s yellow, rather than red, card for the head-to-head contact on the Crusaders’ new All Black Dallas McLeod which left the wing dazed and, eventually, sidelined after he failed a head injury assessment.
That it happened only days after former All Blacks prop Carl Hayman released his autobiography featuring his battle with dementia caused almost certainly but repeated knocks to the head over his career highlighted the distance the game has yet to go to take such acts seriously.
Television match official Brendon Pickerall told referee Ben O’Keeffe that there was mitigation because McLeod was dipping, but Lienert-Brown had the Crusaders wing lined up from 30 metres away.
The Chiefs midfielder saw McLeod jump for the ball and land which should have ruled any “mitigation” redundant because McLeod’s movement should in no way have been unexpected.
Compare it with Angus Ta’avao’s straight red card for the All Blacks against Ireland in Dunedin last year when he was caught unawares by a swich by Gary Ringrose and collided, head to head, with the Irish centre.
The All Blacks prop was bamboozled by the sleight of hand and feet and, moreover, came off worse with a cut head, and yet was sent from the field by referee Jaco Peyper who watched the incident on a replay screen.
And this is the dilemma Super Rugby has found itself in.
According to the law variations in the competition this season, O’Keeffe, under instruction like all the officials to keep the game moving, could only sinbin Lienert-Brown, leaving Pickerall to review his decision, when, given the seriousness of the act and the fact he is the sole arbiter on the field, would in years past have used his own discretion and judgment.
The Crusaders’ win in one of the best Super Rugby finals in years will likely paper over the controversy but it shouldn’t be forgotten.
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