Given New Zealand’s dominance in the Bledisloe Cup, World Cups and Super Rugby over the past two decades, you’d be forgiven for thinking those in the Shaky Isles are simply faster, stronger, fitter and, essentially, better players.
But, according to Australian James O’Connor, who is one of the first Wallabies to play Super Rugby on both sides of the ditch, the biggest difference he’s discovered thus far between the two nations is mental.
“It’s not that like they’re bigger, faster or stronger,” O’Connor told The Roar Rugby podcast. “Everyone in the sort of modern game is pretty similar. It comes down to sort of that mindset.”
In his 17th season as a professional rugby player, O’Connor is uniquely qualified to speak about the differences between competitions across the world having played in the French Top 14, English Premiership and, of course, Super Rugby.
The 34-year-old’s decision to turn down a modest offer at the Reds to sign with the Crusaders shocked many.
Indeed, his recruitment was met with mixed response.
Some like Wyatt Crockett – Super Rugby’s most capped player – questioned why the Crusaders were turning to an Australian to help get the side back on track after crashing back to Earth under new coach Rob Penney in 2024.
Rob Penney is having a better year two with the Crusaders. (Photo by Kai Schwoerer/Getty Images)
O’Connor, who has New Zealand-born parents and had a move to the Chiefs blocked in 2021, said what stood out his first few months at the Crusaders was the fact Super Rugby’s perennial champions didn’t shy away from their ambitions.
“I think just doubling down,” said O’Connor, having been asked how the Crusaders responded from their tough 2024 season.
“They’ve got a winning formula. They know what it takes to win titles. They’ve won the most amount of titles than any other Super Rugby team.
“I think the one thing I noticed was they didn’t shy away from talking about winning and having a positive season.
“I feel like sometimes in Australia, we have the whole rebuild stuff. We talk about playing good footy, but for them, it’s winning. It’s winning games and consistently. That’s what I found really enjoyable…
“A lot of the stuff they’ve done is that psychological battle, and how to get into the mindset of other players and other teams.”
James O’Connor’s move to the Crusaders wasn’t supported by everyone, but the Wallabies fly-half is letting his actions do the talking. (Photo by Joe Allison/Getty Images)
Interestingly, most betting agencies listed the Crusaders as one of the competition favourites in 2025 despite missing the finals last year.
Five weeks into the competition though it seems the Crusaders are very much back in the conversation, having just dropped one match, a second-half blowout to the Chiefs in Hamilton, but also beaten the Hurricanes, Reds and Force.
O’Connor has featured prominently in most of the Crusaders’ performances, including against the Hurricanes first-up and, most recently, against the Force, where he delivered the perfect performance off the bench to ensure they ran away from their Australian opponents.
It’s no surprise O’Connor is thriving given the talent on the Crusaders’ roster.
With four of the Crusaders’ five starting tight-five members entrenched All Blacks, and four of the side’s back five players also internationals, Penney’s side showed their incredible potency against the Force with all nine of their tries coming from their outside backs.
For O’Connor, whose past few seasons have been injury riddled, the veteran Wallaby said it was refreshing that he could have so much confidence in those around him.
“I feel like there’s already three or four guys, who if I have a run or I take a ruck, someone’s going to step up and create there, and everyone’s sort of on a similar page as well, which is pretty awesome,” he said.
“There’s been a few times where I’ve swung back to a blindside because I’ve seen space and there’s already someone in there calling the exact same move, things like that.
“It is pretty refreshing as well because I’m not in the leadership group.
“My role is I’m in the strap group and the creation of sort of the new plays and delivering that to the group. But other than that, I can just really just focus on my game and just going out onto the field as well and not underplaying my hand, but knowing I’ve got strike weapons all over the field. So getting the ball, feeding the ball, put the ball in the right parts of the field, conduct a little bit and then when it opens up, because they’re getting double marked, I can take my opportunity.”
To’omua, who played alongside O’Connor for years at the Wallabies, including at the 2019 World Cup, said it was noticeable that New Zealand sides didn’t need second invitations when opportunities arose.
“The noticeable thing for me is when you do create a two-on-one, or something like that, or a little bit of a gap, at the Reds, you might have seen someone be a couple of metres deep and not really take advantage of that gap that you’d created,” podcast co-host To’omua said.
“Whereas, your kind of go-to players that skip on out, bring that guy in and then you see Will Jordan just hitting it so flat. They clearly sense it. Their feel for the game is exceptional, really.”
O’Connor agreed: “I feel like in Australia, we’ve got a huge rugby league sort of background, so we’re almost playing chess in different parts of the field, we’ve got a focus of a three-phase focus here. If it’s a slow ruck, we’ll get to this sort of kick. We focus a lot on sort of our set moves, sort of strike plays and catching them out.
“I guess a lot of tries from Super Rugby have been scored in that sort of front 30 off lineouts and stuff like that.
“But I’d say in New Zealand, a lot of the stuff is done off sort of chaos training. So our ball’s thrown here. What do you do from here? How do we get out of this play? Our ball’s kicked here. What’s our counter-attack structure? What’s our turnover structure? A lot of the training we’re doing is that faster chaos where things aren’t organised.
“We still do the organised training, but it’s a lot of practice from creating something out of nothing and then finding structure to be able to create holes.”
To’omua, who was coached by New Zealanders Robbie Deans and Dave Rennie at the Wallabies, also said Australia’s neighbours often approached match weeks differently.
“One thing I noticed when working with Kiwi coaches is you’d spend the start of the week doing your plays and specifics, but they were a little bit ‘old school’,” To’omua said.
“As Kiwis are, they were a bit philosophical and deep about things, and would have a theme for the week. I always found that quite interesting.
“Whereas in Australia, we’d beat our chest at the end of the week just before the game, but the Kiwis would kind of layer this emotional element to the game really early in the week and just set the tone and have a story that you’re connected to.”
James O’Connor has had a strong start to his career with the Crusaders. (Photo by Joe Allison/Getty Images)
O’Connor agreed that the layering of emotion throughout the week was seemingly a successful tool throughout the week.
“That planning of the week, that’s not just detail driven or game plan driven, but there’s a whole theme behind it,” he said.
“You’re touching on that theme every day throughout the week. It’s almost like the weeks don’t just blend into one.
“You know how quick Super Rugby is, 16 games pretty much, it can go like [a flash]. So, when you take the time to touch on each game on a different level, not just like a mental level, but that emotional level as well, it really helps you hone in on the detail, too.
“There’s a lot of action words being used, but we do blend it quite well. And then each week sort of just tweaking details in terms of what we’ve seen, but doubling down with that theme as well, leading into it.”
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