ozbash
Referee
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The harsh reality of World Cup year slapped the Crusaders between the eyes last night when they were beaten 34-25 by the Blues.
With six fit All Blacks missing because of the controversial "conditioning" plan, the Crusaders were lacking the X-factor that has so often saved their bacon and mercilessly burned their opponents' chances.
The desire might have been there at Eden Park but the magic and experience of the McCaws, Carters, Jacks and Thornes were missing.
Yet, despite some average tackling and handling, the Crusaders could have won the Super 14 opener. And to rub in the pain, they even missed out on a bonus point.
The scrum was superior one powerful shunt humiliating the Blues pack and setting up a try for No. 8 Mose Tuiali'i and first five-eighths Stephen Brett showed enough class to prove he is capable of filling the gaping void left by the rested Dan Carter.
When they trudged back to their Auckland hotel last night, the players were probably thinking "if only" because with a little more luck they might have snared an unlikely win.
However, when they receive their match statistics sheets, they will realise they made too many basic mistakes. First-up tackles were missed, handling errors proved costly and they looked ring rusty.
Question marks remain over the experiment of starting Casey Laulala at second-five after he made several defensive mistakes and the backs took much of the first half to find their passing rhythm.
Blues replacement midfielder Luke McAlister charged through a grasping Laulala tackle, resulting in right wing Doug Howlett running over in the second spell as the Blues opened up a worrying 31-20 lead.
Even when Blues skipper Troy Flavell was yellow carded late in the match for stomping :roll: , the Crusaders could not cash in on the one-man advantage as they were pinned down in their half.
Despite his clumsy footwork and you should have heard the Blues' crowd squeal about his dismissal Flavell had a strong game, leading his pack around the park and making some strong defensive hits and deft passes.
Still, this under-manned Crusaders side proved it still has plenty of ticker and will not die.
Early in the fourth quarter Brett pounced on an error by Blues fullback George Pisi, and fired a long pass to Rico Gear for the Crusaders' final try.
The first half had offered few encouraging moments for the defending champion and Corey Flynn's try on the stroke of half time was one of few highlights.
The skipper crashed over after it appeared the Crusaders had blown a scoring chance seconds earlier.
Flavell had plundered an attacking Crusaders lineout and the red and blacks seemed destined to go into the halftime break trailing 6-19, but a poor clearing kick by halfback David Gibson slapped into team-mate Saimone Taumoepeau's ample frame, pinged back into the Crusaders' arms and Flynn rumbled over from the ensuing ruck.
Aside from their first try, the visitors fell off too many man-on-man tackles, bumbled the pill forward, struggled to get their hands on the ball and gave away too many penalties.
There were some disturbing cracks in the Crusaders' defence in the 16th minute, Blues centre Isaia Toeava dotting down after left wing Anthony Tuitavake was allowed to jink his way through three soft tackles to set up the flying midfielder. Blues 34 (Isaia Toeava, Rudi Wulf, Doug Howlett tries; Isa Nacewa 2 conv, 5 pen) Crusaders 25 (Corey Flynn, Mose Tuiali'i, Rico Gear tries; Brent Ward 2 pen, Stephen Brett 2 conv). HT: 19-13.
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The Highlanders opened their Super 14 rugby campaign by sweating out a 8-7 win against the Western Force in Perth's blistering heat last night.
Last year's wooden-spooners, the Western Force went into the match at Subiaco Oval with high hopes after going close to upsetting the Highlanders in Dunedin's cooler climate and bolstering their ranks with expensive off-season recruits like Matt Giteau, Ryan Cross and Drew Mitchell.
First five-eighth James Hilgendorf scored a try, converted by Cameron Shepherd, that put the Western Force into the lead - cancelling out an early penalty from Callum Bruce.
But the Highlanders bounced back before halftime with a try by skipper Josh Blackie, before mounting an impressive defensive display in the scoreless second half.
With the temperature hovering around 30degC, neither team generated much flow and both made too many handling errors.
The Highlanders, already missing All Blacks Carl Hayman and Anton Oliver, and playmaker Nick Evans through a knee injury, also lost prop Clarke Dermody when he was yellow-carded after 20 minutes for taking a swipe at Matt Henjak on the floor.
But Highlanders coach Greg Cooper had more to be satisfied about than his Force counterpart John Mitchell, who is likely to be without Hilgendorf against the Stormers next week after he injured his groin last night.
"In attack we didn't control the ball well enough ... it was a night when attack was pretty ugly for both sides, and a lot of it was our own doing," Mitchell said.
After Scott Staniforth bounced off opposite number Lucky Mulipola with a crunching hit, forcing the Highlanders winger to stagger off, a gaping hole was left in the visitors' defence.
On the next phase, Hilgendorf ploughed through the still unplugged hole to score in the 14th minute.
But even with a man advantage, the Force looked like a team which had not played together before.
A mix-up with Henjak, which allowed an innocuous kick to bounce into touch, proved very costly, as from the resultant clearance the Highlanders worked the far side, and Blackie plunged over.
Hilgendorf's injury forced a reshuffle, with Giteau moving to the five eighth position many thought he should have started at.
With the star recruit seeing more of the ball in the second half, the Force strung more phases together, but it was all to no avail against the resolute Highlanders defence.
Having withstood the pressure, the Highlanders went close to extending their narrow lead when Craig Newby denied a rollover try by the TMO in the dying minutes. Highlanders: 8 (Josh Blackie try, Callum Bruce penalty)
Western Force: 7 (James Hilgendorf try, Cameron Shepherd penalty).
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The Waratahs outmuscled the Lions 25-16 in their Super 14 match on Saturday after their gamble of arriving in South Africa only 53 hours before kick-off paid off.
Waratahs coach Ewen McKenzie chose to arrive late in Johannesburg rather than risk jet lag after an 11-hour flight from Sydney.
The new-look Waratahs team showed no ill-effects as they took a 15-6 lead into halftime with flyhalf Daniel Halangahu and flanker Rocky Elsom brushing off poor tackles to bustle in for tries from 15 metres.
Wing Peter Hewat converted the second to add to his earlier penalty, which contrasted with two penalties from Lions flyhalf Louis Strydom, who was a late replacement for injured Springbok No 10 and team captain Andre Pretorius.
The Lions, formerly known as the Cats, struck back two minutes after the restart when wing Louis Ludik sped outside Lote Tuqiri to score in the right-hand corner. Strydom converted to reduce the Waratahs' lead to two points.
Hewat slotted a second penalty to restore some of the Waratahs advantage before McKenzie cleared his bench, introducing among others highly-rated flyhalf Kurtley Beale who turned 18 only a month ago.
Beale immediately looked at home and had a hand in the move that led to the decisive moment in the match when Lions centre Jaque Fourie was yellow-carded.
Beale moved the ball to Tuqiri who was spear-tackled by Fourie. From the resulting penalty, the Waratahs set up a lineout drive and replacement hooker Adam Freier scored the Waratahs third and conclusive try.
Hewat converted and the Waratahs had too much experience and enough energy to close out the game.
Source: Reuters
With six fit All Blacks missing because of the controversial "conditioning" plan, the Crusaders were lacking the X-factor that has so often saved their bacon and mercilessly burned their opponents' chances.
The desire might have been there at Eden Park but the magic and experience of the McCaws, Carters, Jacks and Thornes were missing.
Yet, despite some average tackling and handling, the Crusaders could have won the Super 14 opener. And to rub in the pain, they even missed out on a bonus point.
The scrum was superior one powerful shunt humiliating the Blues pack and setting up a try for No. 8 Mose Tuiali'i and first five-eighths Stephen Brett showed enough class to prove he is capable of filling the gaping void left by the rested Dan Carter.
When they trudged back to their Auckland hotel last night, the players were probably thinking "if only" because with a little more luck they might have snared an unlikely win.
However, when they receive their match statistics sheets, they will realise they made too many basic mistakes. First-up tackles were missed, handling errors proved costly and they looked ring rusty.
Question marks remain over the experiment of starting Casey Laulala at second-five after he made several defensive mistakes and the backs took much of the first half to find their passing rhythm.
Blues replacement midfielder Luke McAlister charged through a grasping Laulala tackle, resulting in right wing Doug Howlett running over in the second spell as the Blues opened up a worrying 31-20 lead.
Even when Blues skipper Troy Flavell was yellow carded late in the match for stomping :roll: , the Crusaders could not cash in on the one-man advantage as they were pinned down in their half.
Despite his clumsy footwork and you should have heard the Blues' crowd squeal about his dismissal Flavell had a strong game, leading his pack around the park and making some strong defensive hits and deft passes.
Still, this under-manned Crusaders side proved it still has plenty of ticker and will not die.
Early in the fourth quarter Brett pounced on an error by Blues fullback George Pisi, and fired a long pass to Rico Gear for the Crusaders' final try.
The first half had offered few encouraging moments for the defending champion and Corey Flynn's try on the stroke of half time was one of few highlights.
The skipper crashed over after it appeared the Crusaders had blown a scoring chance seconds earlier.
Flavell had plundered an attacking Crusaders lineout and the red and blacks seemed destined to go into the halftime break trailing 6-19, but a poor clearing kick by halfback David Gibson slapped into team-mate Saimone Taumoepeau's ample frame, pinged back into the Crusaders' arms and Flynn rumbled over from the ensuing ruck.
Aside from their first try, the visitors fell off too many man-on-man tackles, bumbled the pill forward, struggled to get their hands on the ball and gave away too many penalties.
There were some disturbing cracks in the Crusaders' defence in the 16th minute, Blues centre Isaia Toeava dotting down after left wing Anthony Tuitavake was allowed to jink his way through three soft tackles to set up the flying midfielder. Blues 34 (Isaia Toeava, Rudi Wulf, Doug Howlett tries; Isa Nacewa 2 conv, 5 pen) Crusaders 25 (Corey Flynn, Mose Tuiali'i, Rico Gear tries; Brent Ward 2 pen, Stephen Brett 2 conv). HT: 19-13.
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The Highlanders opened their Super 14 rugby campaign by sweating out a 8-7 win against the Western Force in Perth's blistering heat last night.
Last year's wooden-spooners, the Western Force went into the match at Subiaco Oval with high hopes after going close to upsetting the Highlanders in Dunedin's cooler climate and bolstering their ranks with expensive off-season recruits like Matt Giteau, Ryan Cross and Drew Mitchell.
First five-eighth James Hilgendorf scored a try, converted by Cameron Shepherd, that put the Western Force into the lead - cancelling out an early penalty from Callum Bruce.
But the Highlanders bounced back before halftime with a try by skipper Josh Blackie, before mounting an impressive defensive display in the scoreless second half.
With the temperature hovering around 30degC, neither team generated much flow and both made too many handling errors.
The Highlanders, already missing All Blacks Carl Hayman and Anton Oliver, and playmaker Nick Evans through a knee injury, also lost prop Clarke Dermody when he was yellow-carded after 20 minutes for taking a swipe at Matt Henjak on the floor.
But Highlanders coach Greg Cooper had more to be satisfied about than his Force counterpart John Mitchell, who is likely to be without Hilgendorf against the Stormers next week after he injured his groin last night.
"In attack we didn't control the ball well enough ... it was a night when attack was pretty ugly for both sides, and a lot of it was our own doing," Mitchell said.
After Scott Staniforth bounced off opposite number Lucky Mulipola with a crunching hit, forcing the Highlanders winger to stagger off, a gaping hole was left in the visitors' defence.
On the next phase, Hilgendorf ploughed through the still unplugged hole to score in the 14th minute.
But even with a man advantage, the Force looked like a team which had not played together before.
A mix-up with Henjak, which allowed an innocuous kick to bounce into touch, proved very costly, as from the resultant clearance the Highlanders worked the far side, and Blackie plunged over.
Hilgendorf's injury forced a reshuffle, with Giteau moving to the five eighth position many thought he should have started at.
With the star recruit seeing more of the ball in the second half, the Force strung more phases together, but it was all to no avail against the resolute Highlanders defence.
Having withstood the pressure, the Highlanders went close to extending their narrow lead when Craig Newby denied a rollover try by the TMO in the dying minutes. Highlanders: 8 (Josh Blackie try, Callum Bruce penalty)
Western Force: 7 (James Hilgendorf try, Cameron Shepherd penalty).
**************************************
The Waratahs outmuscled the Lions 25-16 in their Super 14 match on Saturday after their gamble of arriving in South Africa only 53 hours before kick-off paid off.
Waratahs coach Ewen McKenzie chose to arrive late in Johannesburg rather than risk jet lag after an 11-hour flight from Sydney.
The new-look Waratahs team showed no ill-effects as they took a 15-6 lead into halftime with flyhalf Daniel Halangahu and flanker Rocky Elsom brushing off poor tackles to bustle in for tries from 15 metres.
Wing Peter Hewat converted the second to add to his earlier penalty, which contrasted with two penalties from Lions flyhalf Louis Strydom, who was a late replacement for injured Springbok No 10 and team captain Andre Pretorius.
The Lions, formerly known as the Cats, struck back two minutes after the restart when wing Louis Ludik sped outside Lote Tuqiri to score in the right-hand corner. Strydom converted to reduce the Waratahs' lead to two points.
Hewat slotted a second penalty to restore some of the Waratahs advantage before McKenzie cleared his bench, introducing among others highly-rated flyhalf Kurtley Beale who turned 18 only a month ago.
Beale immediately looked at home and had a hand in the move that led to the decisive moment in the match when Lions centre Jaque Fourie was yellow-carded.
Beale moved the ball to Tuqiri who was spear-tackled by Fourie. From the resulting penalty, the Waratahs set up a lineout drive and replacement hooker Adam Freier scored the Waratahs third and conclusive try.
Hewat converted and the Waratahs had too much experience and enough energy to close out the game.
Source: Reuters
