The defensive sirens have been wailing inside the Crusaders camp as they prepare to adjust their tackling technique in Saturday night's Super Rugby final.
Captain and No. 8 Kieran Read accepts the Crusaders could be crucified if the NSW Waratahs make easy metres or sneak offloads at Sydney's ANZ Stadium – a point that coach Todd Blackadder has banged on about all week behind closed doors.
Just looking at the stats sheets should be enough to give the Crusaders goose bumps.
Waratahs fullback Israel Folau leads the competition in offloads and is second for making clean breaks. Centre Adam Ashley-Cooper is third in that latter category, while big ball-carrying forwards, such as No. 8 Wycliff Palu and hooker Tatafu Polota-Nau add variety to the attack.
"It's important we stay focused and defend for long periods of time if we have to," Read said.
"I guess it's that one moment where you don't fill the inside or look after the offload they will kill us. It [defence] is important for us."
The Waratahs are not the minor premiers by accident. They average more tries, carries, metres, passes, breaks and offloads than any team in the competition.
The Crusaders must have looked at each other with raised eyebrows when the ACT Brumbies retained possession for long periods to keep danger men like Folau and Ashley-Cooper quiet during last weekend's semi, but preventing them from offloading when they do have the ball is crucial.
Loosehead prop Wyatt Crockett revealed Blackadder had made that clear.
"That is one thing that has been said this week – we know we are going to have to defend out wide and they will have a go from anywhere on the track," Crockett said.
"We just have to be prepared to defend a little bit differently than we did against the Sharks [during last weekend's semi] who kicked a lot more. We just have to be a bit sharper there."
Defence coach Tabai Matson may encourage his men to go high on the Waratahs ball carriers, urging them to wrap them up before quickly wrestling them to the deck to give scavengers like Matt Todd or Richie McCaw the chance to get over the ball for turnovers.
Read said big tackles could create self-doubt among the Waratahs and potentially force them to go away from their expansive game plan.
"We know the importance of shutting them down and it's a way you can exert a bit of pressure on them, too.
"If that's the way they want to play and we can stop it - it gives us another chance to get into them."
Read has had a glittering career, including winning a World Cup and being named the IRB player of the year but he has collected just one Super Rugby title - against the Waratahs at Lancaster Park in 2008.
When quizzed on their set pieces, the Crusaders have refused to give Waratahs coach Michael Cheika any chance to push inflammatory quotes under his players' noses, but their first scrum should be a fist-shaking exercise.
Last weekend they popped the rivets out of the Sharks' scrum – which had given the Highlanders a pasting the previous weekend – and the Waratahs pack have reason to be anxious.
"The rate of improvement in this team has been immense," Read said. "It's important that we don't just stop now, and we have to improve again."
