The Crusaders are about to swap Christchurch’s hot summer for near freezing conditions in Ireland and England for their pre-season matches that veteran halfback Willi Heinz believes will be invaluable for the business end of the Super Rugby season.

The defending champions for the past seven years are scheduled to fly out on Friday to play Munster in Cork on Sunday, February 4, and the Bristol Bears the following Saturday.

While the opening weeks of Super Rugby will be marked by warm weather in the South Pacific, the finals in June are inevitably played in cold and wet conditions.

The importance placed on tactical kicking and defensive accuracy in front of big and expectant crowds will be brought home over the next fortnight, Heinz said.

“It will be invaluable,” Heinz, 37, said of the experience. “Going up there at this time of year playing against teams halfway through their season in what will invariably be tricky conditions I imagine is such a unique opportunity.

“Often what you don’t get when you prepare for Super Rugby is preparing for big occasions. You might be playing down in Ashburton or Oamaru or some random town in the North Island and while that’s awesome, to have the opportunity to go into a big stadium and play in front of 35,000 or 40,000 people, that’s something you don’t often get.

“We’ve got the Chiefs in round one on a Friday night at what will be a cauldron [in Hamilton] so to be able to go to Munster and Bristol and play in front of those big crowds will be a great opportunity for us.

“I’ve been over to Thomond Park before with Gloucester [to play Munster] and their fans are incredibly special — singing and chanting and creating that real cauldron sort of atmosphere so it will be awesome to experience that.”

The Crusaders will travel without their All Blacks which means their youngsters, including first-five rivals Taha Kemara, 20, and Rivez Reihana, 23, will get good opportunities to impress. Fergus Burke, the likely long-term replacement for Richie Mo’unga, is still recovering from an Achilles injury suffered last year.

Kemara, the Waikato player in his first season of Super Rugby, said: “We know it’s going to be a competition between us but that’s what brings out the best in us. There’s nothing better than having good competition.”

Lock Quinten Strange will be tour captain in the absence of All Black Scott Barrett and the team’s other veterans.

Source: TVNZ