Nobody at the Blues or the Crusaders gets to take Good Friday off.
The Super Rugby Pacific season is continuing through the public holiday, with the Canterbury side hosting the Aucklanders at Apollo Projects Stadium.
Crusaders vice-captain Ethan Blackadder spoke to D'Arcy Waldegrave on Sportstalk.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sports Talk podcast with Dancy Wildegrave
from News Talks.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
It'd be right. He's talking about it. Seid Rugby Pacific
now fifteen minutes after seven and Blackouted joined us. Blackout
of the Seconds, not the old man, it's the younger one, Ethan.
Black Out of the Second joins us now on the program.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Good evening, Ethan, Good evening, mate, How are you.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
I'm very well looking forward to the weekend. Bit of
a long weekend for us, but of a break on Friday.
Not for you blokes, though, You've got to suit up
and play some football on good Friday. How does that
suit with you?
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Yeps? For you? Done for us? Mate? Yeah, we're boot
up Friday and ready for a big contest against the Blues.
So yeah, we'll bloody excited.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
I don't believe for a second you don't need any chocolate.
Can't you just like justify it by saying, gre's me
some energy when I get out on the park. I mean,
don't you guys do that?
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Yeah, we'll have someone on Saturday after a big game.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
I think, yeah, well it will be a big game. Look,
this is massive. You're obviously sitting at the top of
the table right now. Two defeats what eight and six
I think it is. At the moment, you're eight game
six victories. You're just ahead of the Chiefs, whereas the
Blues are there down the bottom looking on up and
they're on a bit of a resurgence right now. So
(01:24):
what do you focus on predominantly, what's Pen's been telling
you about what you need to do to make sure
you can stub out the Blues.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Yeah, it's just about refreshing. You know, we had a
win last week. It was actually a close contest in
the finish. So looking at the Blues again, we've already
played them this year. We had some success up there,
but doesn't really mean anything. It's about really setting completely
and looking at a Blues team that's actually changed in
the last month. So preparing for a good team. But
(01:54):
at the same time, we're on the way up to
and we're going to We're going out there to impose
that game on them.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Let's look back to that game last week. You were
sitting reasonably pretty then it kind of fell apart in
the last well ten minutes or so and you were gone.
It was a team yellow another yellow as well. You've
got to look at that space and in your old
man's big favorite this word discipline, it's something you're ready
got to look at.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Yeah, yeah, sort of. It was our era rate. We
were in a position where we were three tries in front,
and then I wouldn't say that's complacency, it was just
skill set errors and we allowed them to come back
into the game. And then that last ten minutes, as
you say, we were down to third amen and defending
for our lives on the line, and there was some
(02:40):
phenomenal efforts there. But to be honest, we shouldn't have
pot ourselves in that position if we just treasured the
ball and just put belt Moore pressure played on top. So, yeah,
some good lessons in that game.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Well, you know you went wrong. How do you tweak that?
Is it just on the spot on the field? Is
there anything you can do during the week's lead up
to the next game that might help eradicate that.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
It's quite a hard one sort of to put your
finger on it, sort of when you're out there, like
what what's working at the time that we probably should
have probably should have stayed worth a few things rather
than going to quite big plays, especially offline out time
so yeah, it was just sort of a few years
drop balls or people were not being in the right
spots of that kind of stuff, and we can easily
(03:24):
fix that.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Well, that's that's good to know. You're not overwhelmed, you're
not daunted by it. It's just a couple of little tweaks.
You guys, must be lifted last year. This time last
year things went doing particularly well. Did you even look
back at that or is it all eyes forward?
Speaker 3 (03:41):
It's ie forwards to be honest, Like history is called
history and you can look back on it. But we're
a complete different team to last year, Like it's a
year on. People have changed, people are playing different rugby.
You can reflect back if you want, but personally, I
don't look and forward injury wise.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
And it's great to see that your riga is feeling
pretty good right now, even though you carry on paying
it little no respect, tossing it around. But that was
a big problem last year, the fact that you didn't
have a great deal of players to choose from. So
you've got on back now, But what else have you
applied in order to get this result? We have only
(04:22):
like I've won most of your games this year. Has
anything changed? In your outlook and your team play. What
else is different?
Speaker 3 (04:29):
I don't know. I don't know if you call it
luck or what. But some years, like quite literally, you
just have a crapload of injuries. There's no really good
reason for it. Like, yeah, that's a bit of a mystery,
I reckon. But yeah, this year, touch word, I'll just
touch it right now. Yeah, gotcha? Yeah, yeah, I just
I don't know the physics behind it. But we've got
(04:51):
one thing. We've actually got a lot of real professionals
in this team, and the works they do off the
field around getting their bodies right and all the recovery things.
I think that's actually gone up a level. So yeah,
I'm going to put it down to that.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Okay, So as far as team tactics are concerned and
attitudes around what you want to do and what's worked
for you, and nothing much has changed there, you can
just apply it because you've got the cattle to do.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
So yeah, yeah, I think so exactly that now we've
been we've been portate to this stage, that's only halfway
through the season. So as long as we keep keep
looking after our bodies and being professionals and we can
have more cattle available.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Out of last week. There's a couple of rock stars
you wanted more.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
Know.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
I mean, I think he's just that's like blown up
a lot of people's fantasy leagues. It's done particularly well.
Tell me his story.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Yeah, he's an amazing, amazing young man. He's been in
this environment for a few years now, and yeah, you're
just seeing the fruits of what he can actually do.
Is incredible instinctive rugby player. And he's just the joy
to watch, isn't he. And he's play plays with a
smile on his face. But he's a hard man to stop, hugely.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
So I suppose it says to me that he's been
in your system for a while, he's got an enormous
amount of patience and trusted himself that give him the opportunity.
He won't make a mess of it, because it's not
like you've been on the ground hookers, is it.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
Yeah, Yeah, that's right, Like yeah, Like he came into
the environment as a oh two three years ago, you know,
and he ended up playing quite a few games in
his first season where he probably didn't think he was
going to. And I just put that down to like,
guys in this position, you know, you've got like Cody
and George Belle and those guys just filtering down their
(06:44):
knowledge and helping him to be better. And then you've
got Dan Perrin helping him hugely. So yeah, they're just
developing players and you're seeing seeing him out there, he's
just playing so well and wrap for him.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Where are you at at the moment with your game?
How comfortable are you with what you're providing right now
that your happy points and where you think, yeah, now,
can't Ethan you can do better?
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Yeah, I'm sort of I've got high standards on myself,
so yeah, I'm constantly trying to improve areas of my game.
So I'd say I'm never satisfied. There's always a couple
of areas in a game you might be half happy with,
but there's always areas to sharpen up. So yeah, I'm
(07:28):
just looking for accuracy and what I'm doing at the
moment so that that's what I'm striving for.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Dare give you any advice you get on the blow
and go bro, I've noticed something.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
No, he hasn't lately, but he hasn't the past. Yeah, yeah, yep,
it's always good to get it second or third opinion,
isn't it because we all see the game in different ways.
So yeah, it's good like that.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
A couple of last things before we go, as any
Japanese club have been sending new contracts to sign, are
you going to disappear with everybody else?
Speaker 3 (08:00):
And I haven't received anything from Japan so frant Yeah,
nothing in that space. Nothing in that space at the moment.
I'm just focused on Yeah here in New Zealand at
the moment.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
That's all we want to hear. That is great news.
And finally, the biggest threat that the Blues provide, what
is it? What are you alerted to? And about?
Speaker 3 (08:26):
Probably their forwards play. They looks like they've found a
bit of the DNA again and yeah, just what their
forwards provide, you know, they're around the corner the physical. Yeah,
just play around that. So that's what we're preparing for.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Well, you got it last week because it wasn't like
the loose forwards of the Hurricanes were shy and retiring people.
That was huge too, So let's do it again in
the loose on good Friday, Ethan black At It always
a pleasure. You play well, play hard, play fair, talk soon,
Thank you very much.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Mate, you have a great great
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Way for more from sports talk, listen live to News
Talks it B from seven pm weekdays, or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Sports Talk podcast with Dancy Wildegrave
from News Talks.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
It'd be right. He's talking about it. Seid Rugby Pacific
now fifteen minutes after seven and Blackouted joined us. Blackout
of the Seconds, not the old man, it's the younger one, Ethan.
Black Out of the Second joins us now on the program.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Good evening, Ethan, Good evening, mate, How are you.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
I'm very well looking forward to the weekend. Bit of
a long weekend for us, but of a break on Friday.
Not for you blokes, though, You've got to suit up
and play some football on good Friday. How does that
suit with you?
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Yeps? For you? Done for us? Mate? Yeah, we're boot
up Friday and ready for a big contest against the Blues.
So yeah, we'll bloody excited.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
I don't believe for a second you don't need any chocolate.
Can't you just like justify it by saying, gre's me
some energy when I get out on the park. I mean,
don't you guys do that?
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Yeah, we'll have someone on Saturday after a big game.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
I think, yeah, well it will be a big game. Look,
this is massive. You're obviously sitting at the top of
the table right now. Two defeats what eight and six
I think it is. At the moment, you're eight game
six victories. You're just ahead of the Chiefs, whereas the
Blues are there down the bottom looking on up and
they're on a bit of a resurgence right now. So
(01:24):
what do you focus on predominantly, what's Pen's been telling
you about what you need to do to make sure
you can stub out the Blues.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Yeah, it's just about refreshing. You know, we had a
win last week. It was actually a close contest in
the finish. So looking at the Blues again, we've already
played them this year. We had some success up there,
but doesn't really mean anything. It's about really setting completely
and looking at a Blues team that's actually changed in
the last month. So preparing for a good team. But
(01:54):
at the same time, we're on the way up to
and we're going to We're going out there to impose
that game on them.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Let's look back to that game last week. You were
sitting reasonably pretty then it kind of fell apart in
the last well ten minutes or so and you were gone.
It was a team yellow another yellow as well. You've
got to look at that space and in your old
man's big favorite this word discipline, it's something you're ready
got to look at.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Yeah, yeah, sort of. It was our era rate. We
were in a position where we were three tries in front,
and then I wouldn't say that's complacency, it was just
skill set errors and we allowed them to come back
into the game. And then that last ten minutes, as
you say, we were down to third amen and defending
for our lives on the line, and there was some
(02:40):
phenomenal efforts there. But to be honest, we shouldn't have
pot ourselves in that position if we just treasured the
ball and just put belt Moore pressure played on top. So, yeah,
some good lessons in that game.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Well, you know you went wrong. How do you tweak that?
Is it just on the spot on the field? Is
there anything you can do during the week's lead up
to the next game that might help eradicate that.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
It's quite a hard one sort of to put your
finger on it, sort of when you're out there, like
what what's working at the time that we probably should
have probably should have stayed worth a few things rather
than going to quite big plays, especially offline out time
so yeah, it was just sort of a few years
drop balls or people were not being in the right
spots of that kind of stuff, and we can easily
(03:24):
fix that.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Well, that's that's good to know. You're not overwhelmed, you're
not daunted by it. It's just a couple of little tweaks.
You guys, must be lifted last year. This time last
year things went doing particularly well. Did you even look
back at that or is it all eyes forward?
Speaker 3 (03:41):
It's ie forwards to be honest, Like history is called
history and you can look back on it. But we're
a complete different team to last year, Like it's a
year on. People have changed, people are playing different rugby.
You can reflect back if you want, but personally, I
don't look and forward injury wise.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
And it's great to see that your riga is feeling
pretty good right now, even though you carry on paying
it little no respect, tossing it around. But that was
a big problem last year, the fact that you didn't
have a great deal of players to choose from. So
you've got on back now, But what else have you
applied in order to get this result? We have only
(04:22):
like I've won most of your games this year. Has
anything changed? In your outlook and your team play. What
else is different?
Speaker 3 (04:29):
I don't know. I don't know if you call it
luck or what. But some years, like quite literally, you
just have a crapload of injuries. There's no really good
reason for it. Like, yeah, that's a bit of a mystery,
I reckon. But yeah, this year, touch word, I'll just
touch it right now. Yeah, gotcha? Yeah, yeah, I just
I don't know the physics behind it. But we've got
(04:51):
one thing. We've actually got a lot of real professionals
in this team, and the works they do off the
field around getting their bodies right and all the recovery things.
I think that's actually gone up a level. So yeah,
I'm going to put it down to that.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Okay, So as far as team tactics are concerned and
attitudes around what you want to do and what's worked
for you, and nothing much has changed there, you can
just apply it because you've got the cattle to do.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
So yeah, yeah, I think so exactly that now we've
been we've been portate to this stage, that's only halfway
through the season. So as long as we keep keep
looking after our bodies and being professionals and we can
have more cattle available.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Out of last week. There's a couple of rock stars
you wanted more.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
Know.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
I mean, I think he's just that's like blown up
a lot of people's fantasy leagues. It's done particularly well.
Tell me his story.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Yeah, he's an amazing, amazing young man. He's been in
this environment for a few years now, and yeah, you're
just seeing the fruits of what he can actually do.
Is incredible instinctive rugby player. And he's just the joy
to watch, isn't he. And he's play plays with a
smile on his face. But he's a hard man to stop, hugely.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
So I suppose it says to me that he's been
in your system for a while, he's got an enormous
amount of patience and trusted himself that give him the opportunity.
He won't make a mess of it, because it's not
like you've been on the ground hookers, is it.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
Yeah, Yeah, that's right, Like yeah, Like he came into
the environment as a oh two three years ago, you know,
and he ended up playing quite a few games in
his first season where he probably didn't think he was
going to. And I just put that down to like,
guys in this position, you know, you've got like Cody
and George Belle and those guys just filtering down their
(06:44):
knowledge and helping him to be better. And then you've
got Dan Perrin helping him hugely. So yeah, they're just
developing players and you're seeing seeing him out there, he's
just playing so well and wrap for him.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Where are you at at the moment with your game?
How comfortable are you with what you're providing right now
that your happy points and where you think, yeah, now,
can't Ethan you can do better?
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Yeah, I'm sort of I've got high standards on myself,
so yeah, I'm constantly trying to improve areas of my game.
So I'd say I'm never satisfied. There's always a couple
of areas in a game you might be half happy with,
but there's always areas to sharpen up. So yeah, I'm
(07:28):
just looking for accuracy and what I'm doing at the
moment so that that's what I'm striving for.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Dare give you any advice you get on the blow
and go bro, I've noticed something.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
No, he hasn't lately, but he hasn't the past. Yeah, yeah, yep,
it's always good to get it second or third opinion,
isn't it because we all see the game in different ways.
So yeah, it's good like that.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
A couple of last things before we go, as any
Japanese club have been sending new contracts to sign, are
you going to disappear with everybody else?
Speaker 3 (08:00):
And I haven't received anything from Japan so frant Yeah,
nothing in that space. Nothing in that space at the moment.
I'm just focused on Yeah here in New Zealand at
the moment.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
That's all we want to hear. That is great news.
And finally, the biggest threat that the Blues provide, what
is it? What are you alerted to? And about?
Speaker 3 (08:26):
Probably their forwards play. They looks like they've found a
bit of the DNA again and yeah, just what their
forwards provide, you know, they're around the corner the physical. Yeah,
just play around that. So that's what we're preparing for.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Well, you got it last week because it wasn't like
the loose forwards of the Hurricanes were shy and retiring people.
That was huge too, So let's do it again in
the loose on good Friday, Ethan black At It always
a pleasure. You play well, play hard, play fair, talk soon,
Thank you very much.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Mate, you have a great great
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Way for more from sports talk, listen live to News
Talks it B from seven pm weekdays, or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio
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