Crusaders

 Robertson guided the Crusaders to the Super Rugby Aotearoa title earlier this month to add to their three successive Super Rugby titles since he took over in 2017.

He missed out on the All Blacks coaching job last year and said he had approaced Lions and Chiefs coach Warren Gatland about a role on the Lions tour to help give him some international experience.

"I thought, look if I can't be involved with the All Blacks, what's the biggest thing - or actually bigger in its own self - the Lions tour - to get involved," Robertson told New Zealand radio station Gold AM.

T? K?tahi Aotearoa, which the red and blacks claimed after defeating the Highlanders in their penultimate game of the competition, was a unique piece of artwork crafted in ?taki.

However during post-match celebrations the Crusaders admitted the trophy sustained minor damage, having been dropped. The team subsequently apologised and sought cultural advice.

The country's shift back up the Covid-19 alert levels until at least midnight Friday has put both matches in serious doubt.

As it stands, Sunday's sold-out Blues-Crusaders match in Auckland could not go ahead, while Saturday's Highlanders-Hurricanes game in Dunedin could but without fans.

NZR general manager for professional rugby & performance Chris Lendrum said all their decision-making would be guided by government advice and they were awaiting the government update on Friday with interest.

The three-time defending Super Rugby champions have lifted the Tū Kōtahi Aotearoa trophy in front of their home fans after beating their southern neighbours 32-22 in Christchurch.

The Crusaders scored three unanswered tries in the last 20 minutes, having trailed 22-13 midway through the second-half and 17-13 at halftime.

It's their 11th Super Rugby title in total and ends the title hopes of the Blues and Hurricanes, who can now finish no higher than second.

With New Zealand set to forge ahead with alternative Super Rugby plans, it appears South Africa’s leading teams will try to join an expanded PRO14 championship up north.

Ending the battle against the classy red and blacks would hit South African teams and their fans, according to one of their leading rugby writers, Robert Houwing at Sport 24.

He felt it would be hard to look past the Crusaders “for the biggest sense of modern-day aura and sparkling entertainment value among rugby franchises or clubs the world over”.

But Holland doesn't want to spend his Sunday thinking about the Crusaders.

"I don't want to move there yet. I want to soak up what we've just done out there against the Blues, especially if we lost out here to the Blues it hurts for three or four days. So I want to take another day or so to enjoy this," Holland said.

"We want to beat the other team and we want to go to Christchurch to end their run.

"We're going to have to do everything well. We're going to have to prepare well and that will start on Monday morning, but at the moment we're going to enjoy this win."

The win extended their winning streak at home to 36 games, but was hard earned after the Blues led for the first 60 minutes.

Both sides were unbeaten after their first three games of Super Rugby Aotearoa, with the Blues also boasting four straight wins before Covid-19 suspended the original Super Rugby competition.

The Blues drew first blood tonight, just 10 minutes after kick-off, building pressure before Otere Black's wide ball found Mark Telea on the right wing.

The provincial bloodfeud, which dates back more than a century, has waned in recent years with the nine times champion Crusaders dominating almost all comers.

But with both sides unbeaten after their first three games of Super Rugby Aotearoa Saturday's match up has fans and players hoping for a new chapter in the storied conflict.

Carlos Spencer sparking a length of the field try to seal the win for the Blues over the Crusaders in 2004 before flipping the Canterbury crowd the bird, epitomising the intense rivalry between the two teams.

 Crusaders head coach Scott Robertson has made few changes to the side that secured a bonus-point win against the Highlanders last weekend.

Ethan Blackadder sustained a knee injury at training last week and was ruled out of the match in Dunedin. His replacements, Sione Havili and Tom Sanders, will rotate this week, with Sanders to start and Havili named on the bench. The rest of the forward pack is unchanged.

In a top of the table clash this Saturday, the Crusaders host the Blues in Super Rugby Aotearoa in Christchurch, a match which will give many older fans flashbacks to the glory days of the Auckland-Canterbury rivalry.

Both sides are unbeaten after three games, and with no finals to take place, Saturday could go a long way towards deciding which team will lift the trophy later this year.

Hansen says there is a huge amount of respect for the Blues.