Having watched the Crusaders lose to the Western Force in the early hours of Saturday, the anti-Crusade brigade have pulled up their favourite bean bags to prepare to watch the seven-times champions’ Super 14 title chances shrivel up on the tip of the African continent.

That’s what a Crusaders’ loss can do. To see them come a cropper down the home straight has cheered their detractors up considerably, and if they lose to the Stormers in Cape Town and the Bulls in Pretoria, they might have to deep-six their semifinal chances before the final match against the Brumbies at AMI Stadium in Christchurch.

After the way they performed in their 24-16 loss to the Force, the gloom merchants have reason to be optimistic. Repeat that against the Stormers next Saturday morning, and the old red and black ship will be steering towards very choppy waters at Fort Loftus.

As the Crusaders winged their way across the Indian Ocean at the weekend, coach Todd Blackadder would surely have been unable to resist another peek at the footage of the Perth match.

As he counted up the number of turnovers, assessed the dodgy lineout and viewed the ease with which the Force runners were able to get over the gainline near the ruck fringes, he would have been tempted to throw the laptop down the aisle.

Even though the Crusaders led 13-0 at halftime, there were already enough errors to fill quarter of a notebook, and the remainder was filled in the second spell.

Inside the opening minute, the Crusaders lost their first lineout when hooker Ti’i Paulo hurled the ball over Brad Thorn at the front and repeated the offence 11 minutes later when he missed Chris Jack at the back.

In between times, halfback Kahn Fotuali’i scampered easily down the shortside for what proved to be the Crusaders’ sole try, leaving the visitors to fill the remaining 37 minutes of the first half with plenty of unmemorable moments.

There were a number of turnovers because of poor protection of the ball, the out-of-sorts Dan Carter again struggled to make an impression and even chipped in with a basic error when he missed touch from a penalty. To cap it off, Paulo was robbed of the ball when he illegally bound himself to a rolling maul with just one hand.

The less said about the second half the better, as the Crusaders were out-pointed 24-3. The Force, as they had in the first half, daringly spurned shots at goals from penalties and mounted attacks from lineouts as the Crusaders continued to cough up the ball and ended the match with an incredible 23 turnovers.

Even the Crusaders scrum struggled to impose itself on its opponent and with their attack being so disjointed, little was seen of their major weapon out wide, Zac Guildford.

It is not all gloom and doom for the Crusaders.

The Stormers hardly performed like world-beaters in their loss to the Reds in Brisbane at the weekend and having had to endure a long trip back to South Africa they will be travel-weary after a month of touring.

The last time the Crusaders suffered a loss, their 41-20 humbling by the Reds in round two, they rebounded by nailing the touring Sharks 35-6.

They have time to make up for Perth, but it’s running out fast.