Reds on a pre-season Crusade

The Queensland Reds will face seven-time Super Rugby champions the Crusaders at Ballymore in their second pre-season match ahead of the 2015 Super Rugby season - on Friday, February 6.

The Crusaders are expected to bring a strong squad to Ballymore, featuring some of the game's most notable players including many of their All Blacks stars.

The long-standing relationship and on-field rivalry between the Reds and the Crusaders is one of Super Rugby's most celebrated - intensified by the 2011 Super Rugby Final, which saw the Reds claim an 18-13 win over the New Zealanders in front of more than 50,000 fans at Suncorp Stadium.  

This will be the second pre-season match played at the home of Queensland in as many years, and coach Richard Graham is looking forward to the Reds hosting one of the competition's most successful sides.

"This will be the first opportunity for some of our 2015 recruits like [Rugby League convert] Karmichael Hunt, [All Black flank] Adam Thomson and [Wallaby bad boy] James O'Connor to and play for the Reds at the home of Queensland, so I'm sure our fans will be keen to come and see this game live in February," Graham said.

"The match will provide us with a chance to test out some of our new combinations and recruits against quality competition ahead of the regular Super Rugby season.

"The Crusaders will be a great team to use as a benchmark leading into the 2015 Super Rugby season. Historically they are the most successful franchise in the competition and once again they were grand-finalists in 2015," Graham added.

The fixture will be the Crusaders' final hit-out before their Super Rugby opener against the Melbourne Rebels in Christchurch on February 13.

The seven-time champions will play their other pre-season matches against the Highlanders in Timaru on January 24 and the Hurricanes in Eketahuna a week later.

The match at Ballymore against the Reds should see the Crusaders field a side stacked with a number of current All Blacks but No 8 Kieran Read and lock Sam Whitelock, who are expected to miss the first three games of the regular season, will not feature.