Crusaders stretch Super Rugby streak to 33 with victory over Blues

The Crusaders have kept alive their stunning Super Rugby Pacific finals record, the defending champions steamrolling the Blues in their qualifying final, with fullback Johnny McNicholl bagging a hat-trick.

The Crusaders have never lost a final at home, banking their 33rd win in Christchurch with a 52-31 scoreline in Saturday’s clash to secure a semi-final berth.

They joined the table-topping Hurricanes, who thrashed the Brumbies 66-12 in Friday’s qualifying final in Wellington.

Skipper David Havili, who scored a 29th minute try, said his team drilled down on the rich Crusaders history that includes 13 titles in a full competition outside of COVID.

“Yeah, it’s pretty special. We spoke about it this week, and we know how good we are at finals football, and we just backed our history in that,” the centre said.

“There’s a few boys who aren’t out there, but we trust everyone in our jersey.”

Playing at their One New Zealand Stadium, the Crusaders’ cause got a huge first-half boost with the Blues losing Malachi Wrampling-Alec to a red card.

Australian referee Nic Berry gave the No.8 a yellow card for making “shoulder to head contact” on Crusaders flanker Leicester Fainga’anuku.

That was quickly upgraded to a permanent send-off, with the TMO telling Berry there was a “high degree of danger with no mitigation”.

The Crusaders quickly took advantage and two minutes later McNicholl picked a hole in the defence to score one of their five first-half tries as they marched to a 33-14  lead at the break.

Young playmaker Taha Kemara crossed in the 37th minute to cap the half, also booting four conversions.

Flanker Anton Segner joined halfback Sam Nock, who opened the scoring in the second minute, among the Blues’ try-scorers, but there was a sense of foreboding heading into the second half.

That was realised nine minutes in when McNicholl snagged his second, with Havili beating two men before offloading to his No.15 to push the tally to 40 points.

The Blues, who finished one spot behind the Crusaders on the ladder in fourth, looked like they were finding a foothold in the match when centre Xavi Taele scored in the 53rd minute.

But Rob Penney’s men snuffed out the fightback when McNicholl, who was brought in mid-season to cover injured All Blacks fullback Will Jordan, scored his third try of the game to take the lead to 47-21.

The Blues scored two late tries to finish strongly, but the Crusaders cracked 50 with reserved hooker Manumaua Letiu touching down in the 73rd minute.

The last two teams to move into the semi-finals will be decided by the last match on Saturday, with Queensland taking on the Chiefs in Hamilton.

As well as the three qualifying final winners, the highest-ranked loser also gets a ticket.