The miserly Stormers’ defence will be a challenge for the Crusaders this week.

Despite their 16-13 defeat to the Queensland Reds in Brisbane last weekend, the Stormers, leaked  an average of just 12.7 points per match

The challenge for the Crusaders this week, who let in an average of 19.1 points, is to find ways to crack the formidable Stormers defensive wall in Cape Town.

Last night, coach Todd Blackadder acknowledged they have to annex their opponents’ territory, rather than become bogged down inside their own 50m zone, before launching their attacks.

“We have to hold on to the ball in critical areas of the park, we have to play field position against the Stormers.

“If you make mistakes in your own half they will punish you, so I think it is going to be about field position.”

During last weekend’s 24-16 loss to the Western Force in Perth the Crusaders were forced to make 200 tackles as their opponents attacked around the rucks with short passes, and spurned several shots at goal as they elected to maintain the ball and pressure them through possession and forward drives.

Given their respective positions on the competition log, the Crusaders would have hoped to collect four to five vital competition points in Perth, but now may need to win their remaining three matches against the Stormers, the Bulls in Pretoria and the Brumbies in Christchurch to finish in the top two to qualify for a home play-off spot.

If they don’t they face the prospect of having to travel back to South Africa for a semifinal, or worse, missing out altogether, which would likely leave no New Zealand side in the hunt for a title.

“We talked about that to get to the knockout stages of this campaign that we have basically got to win the next three games. It’s really as close as that.

“You just can’t (afford to lose a match) and if you do you are relying on someone else to drop one.”

The prospect of returning to South Africa for a semi is very real, although Blackadder maintained he was not thinking that far ahead: “At the moment you can’t worry too much about that, that’s like an extra pressure. You just have to get to that top four.

“We have to be realistic in our next game, we have got a team that is capable of doing that. I know that we can turn our season around, but we just have to do the fundamental basics.”

The Crusaders face the Stormers on Saturday morning and will release their team tomorrow.