Aisle be back: Hurricanes v Crusaders and the RWC Draw

I can now reveal the last thing the Hurricanes hear in their teamtalk is: L'audace, l'audace, toujours l'audace.

Which is French for, despite leaving yours fans in serious squeaky bum territory with a man down, and the season in the balance, with 10 to go, you pull out an outrageous 90m breakout try.

Hail Mary doesn't even come close. But being a Hurricanes' fan, well, you just kind of shrug it off don't you, as kind of normal. Although I can't remember a time a team with a five try to one margin at the 70 minute mark was seriously in danger of defeat.

And so onto the game of the season to date, in prospect. The Crusaders in Christchurch.

No surprise that I'm plumping for this as hinging on whether the team with the best backline can win enough ball against the team with the best forward pack.

The tricky thing with such judgments is that we can only compare these two heavyweights by how they've gone against others.

And both contenders you'd have to say, have a win list loaded up with some palookas.

So in the spirit of not being overly nice to the comp-leading Saders, I'm plumping for the Canes' X-factor being that willingness to risk all. It's what propelled them to that famous bonus-point victory last year, that kicked off the weekend of miracles.

Now wouldn't that be nice as a repeat.

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I watched the RWC draw last night live, courtesy of the interweb.

Bill Beaumont looked like a well-dressed Yoda, but disappointingly only occasionally sounded like him.

Shinzo Abe seemed a nice bloke and keen for it all to go off well in 2019. Well if you had North Korea as a neighbour, you'd be keen on some distraction wouldn't you?

And a huge shoutout for the accountants. Woo hoo. Let's hope they've got the right envelopes this time.

But of course this was just padding ahead of the main event - grown men sweating over which order their balls are picked out.

So snap judgement here, nice to have South Africa in the pool stage.

Better than facing them in the quarters or semis. But please don't have the two heavyweights meet first up in pool play.

And C is the Pool of Death no doubt. The English media are already getting the yips about that - but I doubt Eddie Jones is too worried. His England will be a different beast than the last mob and should be able to handle it.

Wales will fancy their chances to top Pool D. Australia will fancy their chances to top Pool D.
And Japan versus the Celts will be huge fun in Pool A.

Theoretically the All Blacks could have a soft quarter, and then face an England or a France in the semis. Ah well, we should be getting well used to that by now.

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We need a name for Beauden Barrett's lethal cross kick. Pass-kick is accurate but odd. A bit like Poms who call jandals flip-flops.

Personally I'm calling it the Barrettcuda. Because calling it the Guppy would sound stupid.

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Canterbury loose forward Reed Prinsep has been called up to the Hurricanes starting side for Saturday’s clash with the competition leading Crusaders in Christchurch.

Prinsep, who made his Super Rugby debut for the Crusaders last year, will start at blindside against his former team with Brad Shields shifting to No.8 for the first time this season. Ardie Savea is at openside flanker.

There is one other change to the side that started against the Stormers in Wellington last Friday with loose head prop Chris Eves switching roles with Ben May, who takes his place among the reserves.

Lifelong All Blacks supporter Kev has followed the Hurricanes since they began. Last year his faith in them was rewarded when they won the title – can they do it again?