Crusaders: a case for the brand that has been a game-changer

The emotion-charged clamour to wipe a name linked to wars with Islam misses a key point.

The Crusaders horsemen ride around the arena prior to the start of the Super Rugby match between the Crusaders and Hurricanes. Picture: AP

“What’s in a name?” William Shakespeare asked in Romeo and Juliet. “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

The Crusaders, the powerhouse side of Super Rugby virtually throughout its long history, has been asking itself that Shakespearean question of late, asking itself if the most powerful team in the history of the competition “would smell as sweet” if it rebranded itself in the wake of the Christchurch massacre of 50 Muslims.

Overnight, they have become uncomfortable with a name that many associate with those Christian knights who went to war with Islam during the Dark Ages. Yet there is also a second meaning to “crusaders” — as people who lobby for and strive for change. And it is that definition that many in Christchurch — and indeed much further abroad — are starting to cling to.

Certainly it is difficult for the club to persuade the community that there are alternate layers and nuances to its name while it had half a dozen horsemen galloping about the stadium in full Crusaders gear as part of the regular pre-match entertainment.

Yet, in a rugby sense, it is the other definition of “crusader” that resonates with most people. The Christchurch side has indeed revolutionised the game of rugby worldwide. The club has engaged an independent research company to seek community feedback and voluntarily has agreed to do away with the Crusaders imagery at their first home match since the massacre, against the Brumbies tomorrow.

Yet it may be that by emphasising their role as rugby game-changers that the Crusaders might get to retain the most famous name in southern hemisphere provincial rugby.

“I think it would be unfair to say that they (the Crusaders players) are not rattled … some of these things can be a bit rattling,” Crusaders chief executive Colin Masbridge told the NZ media.

“The Crusaders that we all stand for … that’s the Crusaders of the second definition of the word. It’s someone who is doing something for good, galvanising the community for good and trying to do good things.”

That was the emotion-charged atmosphere into which the Brumbies flew yesterday. It’s already regarded as the toughest assignment in Super Rugby, the Crusaders in Christchurch, and Brumbies coach Dan McKellar is acutely aware that as the first side to play there since the massacre, it will be doubly difficult. As well as the Waratahs performed when they played the Crusaders on March 23, just a week after 50 people lost their lives in the shootings, it would have to be assumed that the New Zealanders did not have their head in that game, losing 20-12. By the following weekend they were all business and came out and destroyed the Hurricanes 32-8 in Wellington and it’s that side that McKellar expects to face tomorrow.

Although the Brumbies have rotated three Wallabies, lock Rory Arnold, leading tryscorer and hooker Folau Fainga’a and prop Scott Sio, out of their side, they have still named an exciting team, with the much-heralded Darcy Swain to make his Super Rugby debut in the second row alongside another lock making his first appearance for the Brumbies in Super Rugby, Murray Douglas.