The battle for Super Rugby power - The Crusaders just taught the Hurricanes a lesson in wet weather rugby
In a battle for Super Rugby power, the Crusaders delivered a crushing blow to the Hurricanes, claiming a 24-13 win and denting their opponents’ title hopes with it.
Injuries to several high profile Crusaders were supposed to rob the match of its competitiveness. The Hurricanes, riding a 10-game winning streak, were supposed to roll through Christchurch and take pole position on the Super Rugby ladder. Instead, the under-siege Crusaders fought for one of their most valuable wins in recent history.
“In the context of it, yeah probably, it was right up there,” head coach Scott Robertson said after the win.
“Because you would say with the changes and experience we lost it would probably be stacked against us, but I love it. I love this sort of week. You just have got to get the boys ready, clear their heads. You have one training and then you play. It is quite old school.
Going into the sheds 7-6 at halftime showed there was not much between the two sides, but there were signs the Crusaders were on top. The conditions were a great leveler and put the basics under the spotlight while taking away the athletic advantages of the Hurricanes backs.
The Hurricanes phase play looked shoddy in the wet conditions. The carry-clean game they rely on heavily to generate momentum was going backward. The slippery surface made footwork difficult and the Crusaders line speed hammered predictable forward targets.
The depth of the first receiver in the Hurricanes system contributed to the gain line woes, they didn’t flatten up and paid for it. They tried to play width from the deep second level a number of times and were shut down by the suffocating Crusaders defence. The Crusaders – who play much flatter anyway – didn’t have the same issues.
TJ Perenara and Beauden Barrett’s passing skills were found out in the wet. They put the side under pressure at times with lame-duck, off-target passing. Balls were hitting the deck or going behind the player and they kept losing enormous chunks of real estate before having to hoist the ball into the air.
Ill-discipline really cost the Hurricanes. Jordie Barrett gave the Crusaders 100 metres of territory with two back-to-back penalties – a late shot on the exit kicker and a choking tackle around the neck. His brother, Crusaders lock Scott Barrett, scored from the ensuing 5-metre lineout.
The Crusaders weren’t perfect either – contributing a number of errors and showing ill-discipline of their own in the first half. They continued to play for a damaging knockout punch, opting to kick for the corner three times in the last minute of the first stanza, turning down three points. Their failed lineout maul kept the game close.
The second half was a lesson in wet weather rugby.
Every time they made it into the opposition 22, the Crusaders went tight with forward-dominant play to break the Hurricanes down. They almost cracked them out wide through David Havili, but only after earning advantage and a guaranteed three points by drawing them offside in tight.
They repeated the formula five minutes later and Michael Alaalatoa crashed over from close range stretching the scoreline to 17-6 11 minutes into the second half.
The Hurricanes continued to try and play their pattern from the middle of the field, instead of driving the Crusaders deep into their own half with a good kicking game. Once that went nowhere, they put up bombs that were defused and returned.
When Mo’unga put the Hurricanes down into their own five, it spelled their end. Mo’unga drove a pinpoint kick long directly off a midfield scrum, which led to a poor exit by Ihaia West. Heiden Bedwell-Curtis put the nail in the coffin by scoring from the back of the scrum to take the lead to 24-6.
The Crusaders came with a better plan and far better execution in the conditions and now sit in the box seat, five points clear of the Hurricanes on the competition ladder. The Crusaders pack stood up and taught their opponents a lesson in playing to the conditions, while Bryn Hall and Richie Mo’unga completely outplayed Perenara and Barrett.
The Hurricanes still have a chance to secure home field advantage if results fall their way, but if they have to go back to Christchurch in the playoffs and play in bad conditions the Crusaders will be licking their lips.
In other news:
Comments on RugbyPass
Australian Rugby has been a disaster, by not incorporating learning from previous successful campaigns. QLD Reds 2011 - Waratahs 2014. Players, coaches and administrators appoint there representatives for scheduled meetings, organisation’s agreement’s assessments and correspondence. This why a unified Rugby Union under one entity works. Every Rugby nation has taken that path. Was most difficult in the Northern hemisphere with over 100 years of club rugby before the game become professional. Took a lot of humility for those unions to eventually work together.
7 Go to commentsThough Wilson’s sacking was pretty brutal, it wasn’t just down to that Leinster game; Glasgow had a lot of 2nd half collapses that season, in the URC and Europe, and only just scraped into the playoffs. Franco Smith has definitely been an improvement, some players are delivering far more than they did under Wilson.
1 Go to commentsjesus - that front 5!
1 Go to commentsShould be an absolute cracker of a game! Will be great to see DuPont & Ntamack in tandem once again🔥
1 Go to commentsBest team ever…. To have played? These guys are still pressure chokers. Came nowhere when it counted. What a joke
69 Go to commentsMusk defends anonymous terrorism, fascism, threats against individuals and children etc etc But a Rugby club account….lock ‘em up!!!
1 Go to commentsActually the era defining moment came a few years earlier. February 2002 to be precise, when Michael D Higgins as finance minister at the time introduced his sports persons tax relief bill to the dial. As the politicians of the day stated “It seems to be another daft K Club frolic born in Kildare amongst the well-paid professional jockeys with whom the Minister plays golf” and that the scheme represented “a savage uncaring vision of Ireland and one that should be condemned”. The irfu and Leinster would be nowhere near the position they are in today without this key component of the finances.
2 Go to commentsIt is crystal clear that people who make such threats on line should be tried and imprisoned. Those with responsibility in social media companies who don’t facilitate this should be convicted. In real life, I have free speech to approach someone like Reinach and verbally threaten him. I am risking a conviction or a slap but I could do it. In the old days, If someone anonymously threatened someone by letter the police would ask and use evidence from the postal system. Unlike the Post, social media companies have complete instant and legal access to the content in social media. They make money from the data, billions. Yet, they turn a blind eye to terrorism, Nazi-ism and industrial levels of threats against individuals including their address and childrens schools being published online all from ananoymous accounts not real people. They claim free speech. Free speech for anonymous trolls/voilent thugs threatening people under false names? The fault is with the perps but also social media companies who think anonymous personas posting death threats constitutes free speech.
2 Go to commentsSo if this ain’t the best Irish team ever then who exactly is? I don’t remember any other Irish team being this good & winning a series in the Land of the Long White Cloud. Yes I may rip them often for 8 X QF RWC exits & twice not even making it to the QF, but they’re a damn good team who many think can only improve, including me!
69 Go to commentsNot a squeek out of Leinster for weeks about this match. So quiet. The first team have been quitely building for this encounter under Nienaber’s direction. All fresh, all highly motivated. They are expecting a season’s best performance from Northhampton. They will match that. They will be fresher and apparently they will have 80,000 out of the 83,000 shouting for them. I do expect Northhampton to turn up big time. Not to be missed. On a tangent it is evident how the loss of a few Premiership teams has in some respect helped other Premiership teams and England. More quality over less teams makes the teams better, which has a knock on effect on England. Not the only factor contributing to England’s rise but one of them.
2 Go to commentsOur very own monster teddy bear Ox😍💪
17 Go to commentsThis is might be the most generalised, entitled, patronising, out-of-pocket cultural indictment on a group of people you’ll ever see on what is supposedly a sports publication. I can only assume the author is weak like a woman or homosexual. I’m feeling an incredible range of emotions but I am not quite sure how to express them. I might go beat up a hockey player - assuming that’s okay with Duane and the boys? 🙂
9 Go to commentsBest thing the Welsh clubs could do is apply to join Gallagher prem surely be more exciting matches for there support than they have now.
2 Go to commentsRugbyPass writers are useless! you guys should get a real job because you all suck at writing about rugby!!!
9 Go to commentslooking forward to RWC2027 …. Boks on mission impossible for the Three-in-a-row, ABs to prove they being on par, France wishing to crown the “DuPont-era”, Ireland knocking on the Semi-Door ….. until then we’ll probably have to deal with Weird Ben’s fantasy-RWC23 (fun fact is, the drivel always creates a flooding of comments) …..
221 Go to commentsBen Smith you really make some good points in this article, the Springboks were not close to perfect and good still beat the All Blacks, imagine if they were as good as they were against France what a hiding the All Blacks would have gotten… maybe another Twickenham drubbing
221 Go to commentsIt is a good argument to keep the Rebels for one more year but also isnt this just opening the door as well for keeping them beyond 2025. If they can create some sort of financial stability in the next year and if their performances lift as they have this season then how would RA even cull them after that? It might be the most cost effective decision at this stage and perhaps many people are guilty of keeping relationships going because of the cost to decouple but then again when does that ever work out well?
29 Go to commentsDear Ben Smith you are a genius! God please become the next all blacks coach that can take on the mighty BOKS. Your rugby acumen is second to none - imagine your dads sperm bounced as unfortunately as that oval ball did….we would not be blessed with your presence. Just as the all blacks were missing a man you too are missing a chromosome for 80% of your life, so your insights are not only profound but ring true from your own experiences. Just as the TMO interfered with citing an illegal pass I am sure your local authorities interfere with your illegal passes you make on women - How dare they!!! God forbid that rugby be officiated fairly. You are the right man for the job. Next all blacks coach is here ladies and gentlemen Miss Ben Smith (He/She/They/IT)
221 Go to commentsHuge engine this guy and great to see him back ..The amount of clean outs he does at the ruck are ridiculous !!
3 Go to commentsThe level of desperation in this article is just embarrassing.
221 Go to comments