STACY SQUIRES/The Press

HELD BACK: Dan Carter is struggling for form and his Crusaders teammates are being asked to help him out.

The acid has been applied to Dan Carter's team-mates as the search continues for the No10's missing X factor.

Crusaders assistant coach Mark Hammett last night put the onus on other players to help Carter recapture his mojo as they prepare for Saturday morning's Super 14 match against the Bulls at Pretoria's Loftus Versfeld.

Having watched Carter save the Crusaders' bacon on countless occasions, the coaches are calling on his team-mates to repay a few favours against a formidable Bulls team who have won their last 17 matches at Fort Loftus and have already qualified for a semifinal.

Hammett said that whoever was standing outside Carter, whether it be from set play or second-phase, needed to take more responsibility by communicating and helping with his decision-making.

"DC [Dan Carter] is probably struggling for a wee bit of form, but believe it or not I believe it is a really good thing for him," Hammett said.

"In years gone by he's probably had the likes of Aaron Mauger [standing outside him] and when he's been playing for the All Blacks he's got an experienced group. He's got a very young group outside him [with the Crusaders] and while sometimes that's frustrating ... he's actually growing his game without realising it."

Hammett will be well aware that Carter must fire this weekend if the Crusaders are to snare an unlikely win on the high veldt and keep their play-off hopes alive.

"As a backline combination these young guys really need to start feeding information in and make sure they aren't just the ears to listen for what DC wants – because often at Super 14 level the speed of the game is too quick," Hammett said.

Even though he has not been in vintage form all season, Carter's recent performances in the defeats against the Stormers and Western Force were well below his best. Even when taking into account that his forwards have struggled, never has the world's best No10 been so out of form.

Among those required to ramp up their games, if they start, are midfielders Ryan Crotty and Robbie Fruean. The latter, especially, has struggled with his form.

In last weekend's 42-14 defeat to the Stormers in Cape Town the Crusaders struggled with their lineout and Ti'i Paulo will start because hooker Corey Flynn has been sent home with a sprained ankle.

While noting he was generally satisfied with how they negated the Stormers drives from lineouts, Hammett said his side's own lineout was not flash, but there would be plenty of work on it this week as they prepared to confront a Bulls set piece containing the Springboks' twin towers of Victor Matfield and Bakkies Botha. The Crusaders had battled to win their opening throws in recent matches, which eroded their confidence.

"I suppose the odd demon comes into the hooker's head and we may have a couple of pre-calls this week to get those first couple out of the road," Hammett said.

"We have great lineout forwards in Chris Jack, Brad Thorn and Kieran Read so there are plenty of options there. We just need to get everything working together. We are pretty sure we have got some pretty good options up our sleeve this week against Matfield and Botha."