Some seasons are about a trophy. This one was about goodbyes.

The Crusaders farewelled a stadium, a head coach and a captain in 2026, and very nearly farewelled their season before it started. They lost their first two, including at home to a Brumbies side that had not won in Christchurch since 2000. What followed was a genuine rebuild in real time.

Here is all of it, game by game.

A note on player of the match: there was no Player of the Match award at any Super Rugby Pacific match in 2026. The competition instead ran a weekly Player of the Year vote, published only through Round 10. Where we cite vote totals below, that is what they are. Everything else is the match report's judgement.

The season at a glance

| | | |---|---| | Head coach | Rob Penney (final season) | | Captain | David Havili (final season) | | Ladder | 3rd, 8 wins 6 losses, 41 points | | Points | 488 for, 388 against | | Finals | Beat Blues 52-31, lost semi-final 12-49 |

Byes in Rounds 7 and 14. Home was Apollo Projects Stadium until Round 8, then the new One NZ Stadium.

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The regular season

Round 1: Highlanders 25, Crusaders 23 (Dunedin, 13 Feb)

The title defence opened with an upset. Taha Kemara had kicked them in front with nine minutes left before Cam Millar landed a 48-metre penalty with 90 seconds on the clock. Of note: Will Jordan's try was his 48th for the club, moving him third on the all-time list.

Round 2: Crusaders 24, Brumbies 50 (Christchurch, 22 Feb)

The worst afternoon of the year. Ahead on tries early, they then conceded five in the second half, three of them in the last ten minutes, and coughed up 14 turnovers. Of note: the Brumbies' first win in Christchurch since 2000, ending a 26-year hoodoo. James Slipper scored in his 200th Super Rugby game. At 0-2, questions were being asked.

Round 3: Chiefs 33, Crusaders 43 (Hamilton, 28 Feb)

The season-saver. Down 21-7 after 22 minutes in a rematch of the 2025 final, they scored 36 unanswered points. Christian Lio-Willie scored a hat-trick. A late Hotham yellow let the Chiefs back within ten, ended by a Jordan try-saving tackle on Leroy Carter.

Round 4: Blues 29, Crusaders 13 (Eden Park, 7 Mar)

Blown away early, 19-3 down after 21 minutes, with Dom Gardiner's 7th-minute yellow also wiping off a try. Caleb Clarke's hat-trick ended the Blues' four-game Eden Park drought against them.

Round 5: Crusaders 29, Highlanders 18 (Christchurch, 14 Mar)

The 50th South Island derby, and a debutant won it. Johnny Lee scored twice in six minutes to turn the game after they trailed 18-15. They survived three yellow cards. Of note: captain David Havili limped off in the 23rd minute.

Round 6: Moana Pasifika 21, Crusaders 50 (North Harbour, 21 Mar)

Trailed 14-12 midway through the first half, then five second-half tries and a first back-to-back of the season. Will Jordan captained. Of note: Fletcher Newell's 50th appearance; Sevu Reece's 68th competition try, extending his lead atop the all-time Super Rugby try list; a debut try for Kurtis MacDonald.

Round 7: bye

Round 8: Crusaders 69, Fijian Drua 26 (Christchurch, 3 Apr)

The night of the season, and the last at Apollo Projects Stadium. Codie Taylor scored four tries in his 150th game for the club and went off in the 52nd minute to a standing ovation. 31-0 up after 23 minutes, eleven tries in all, and it happened to be the club's 100th win at the ground. Of note: Lio-Willie's 50th game, and a debut for Jack Sexton, Crusader number 306.

Penney: "It couldn't have gone much better for a guy who epitomises what it means to be a Crusader." Taylor: "It's the only stadium I know that I've called home from my debut right until this point."

Round 9: Reds 31, Crusaders 26 (Brisbane, 11 Apr)

Ended a three-match run. Late tries to Filipo Daugunu and Louis Werchon sealed it, with Chay Fihaki scoring after the siren for a losing bonus point. Of note: the Reds' first win over the Crusaders in Brisbane since the 2011 grand final, a 15-year drought.

Round 10: Western Force 31, Crusaders 26 (Perth, 18 Apr)

Led 19-0 after 22 minutes and lost. Zac Lomax levelled it, a 75th-minute Macca Springer leveller was disallowed for an earlier knock-on, and Carlo Tizzano won the sealing penalty. The Australian tour had gone badly wrong.

Round 11: Crusaders 35, Waratahs 20 (Christchurch, 24 Apr)

The first match at the new One NZ Stadium, a 25,237 sellout opening Super Round. The win also meant they avoided a first-ever clean sweep of losses to Australian sides.

Round 12: Hurricanes 38, Crusaders 31 (Wellington, 1 May)

Trailed 24-10 at the break. Gardiner's try with three minutes left set up a finish, but Havili's cross-kick after the siren ended it. A losing bonus point from a good night's work.

Round 13: Crusaders 36, Blues 20 (Christchurch, 8 May)

Won it with 13 men. Kurtis MacDonald was red-carded on 67 minutes and Jack Sexton binned two minutes later, and George Bell still scored the bonus-point try while they were two down. Of note: George Bower's 100th game, and his first ever Super Rugby try. The only red card of their season.

Round 14: bye

Round 15: Crusaders 36, Chiefs 32 (Christchurch, 22 May)

Havili won it himself. He flipped the field with a 50:22 from inside his own 22, then scored the match-winner four minutes from time. The Chiefs ran the length after the siren and were turned over. Finals place secured.

Round 16: Crusaders 47, Hurricanes 14 (Christchurch, 29 May)

Three tries in eleven minutes made it 26-7 at the break against a heavily rotated Hurricanes side, lifting them into the top three. Of note: Sevu Reece's 100th game, with two more tries. Less good: Fletcher Newell's knee injury, the most serious of their season.

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The finals

Qualifying final: Crusaders 52, Blues 31 (Christchurch, 6 Jun)

Blues No.8 Malachi Wrampling was red-carded in the 19th minute for a high shot on Leicester Faingaʻanuku, and the Crusaders led 33-14 at the break. Johnny McNicholl scored a hat-trick. Their perfect home finals record stayed intact at the new ground.

Semi-final: Chiefs 49, Crusaders 12 (Hamilton, 12 Jun)

Over by halftime. The Chiefs scored 42 points in the first half and led 42-5 at the break, Damian McKenzie kicking seven from seven. Fihaki and Havili got the Crusaders' tries.

The records were all against them: the most points the Chiefs have ever scored against them in a half, the Chiefs' biggest ever win over them, and their first finals win over them since 2013. It ended a Crusaders run of seven unbeaten semi-finals.

Penney was honest and generous: "Obviously, there's no coming back from the reality of what that was. The Chiefs were magnificent in that first 30." But also: "We felt that with 20 to go, we were in this. It would need to take a special performance, but we trusted the group. We've got a special group of men."

Havili: "I don't think we felt off, the Chiefs just brought an intensity that we couldn't handle in that first 15 minutes."

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The season in the round

Third on the ladder, 8-6, and a record that splits neatly in two. They went 1-3 against Australian opposition, which cost them a home semi-final, and 5-1 in their last six. They beat the eventual finalist Chiefs twice and swept the Blues. They never lost at their new stadium in the regular season.

Chay Fihaki and Sevu Reece led the try scoring on 8 each. Taha Kemara top-scored with 82 points. Leicester Faingaʻanuku made the inaugural Super Rugby Pacific Team of the Year.

And then the goodbyes. On 27 May, between Rounds 15 and 16, Rob Penney announced he would step down after three seasons, with Scott Hansen confirmed for 2027. Hansen's line on taking it: "I was born in Christchurch, raised in Lyttelton, and I'm Crusader number 25. This is my home."

Three days after the semi-final, David Havili confirmed he was leaving for Japan. He sounded like a man at peace with it: "I definitely feel like it's time for me to move on with the next generation coming through. The legacy is in great hands." On Penney: "Coach has been amazing. It obviously started tough, but he's the glue for our franchise."

A season that began 0-2 and ended 42-5 down at halftime in a semi-final does not read like a good one. But in between there was a 36-point comeback in Hamilton, a 69-point farewell to an old ground, a new stadium opened and never lost at, a win with 13 men, and a captain who beat the Chiefs with a 50:22 and a try in the last four minutes.

Not the ending anyone wanted. Quite a lot to remember, though.