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Crusaders blow out Waratahs for a 'reality check'

David Havili of the Crusaders charges forward during the round 14 Super Rugby Pacific match between Crusaders and NSW Waratahs at Orangetheory Stadium, on May 27, 2023, in Christchurch, New Zealand. (Photo by Joe Allison/Getty Images)

The clinical Crusaders have dealt the NSW Waratahs a reality check with a 42-18 Super Rugby Pacific drubbing in Christchurch.

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Waratahs coach Darren Coleman said pre-game he couldn’t wait to see his in-form charges – riding a four-match winning streak – test themselves against the defending champions on Saturday.

He quickly learnt they have much ground to make up ahead of the looming finals.

Even with a front-row crisis and needing to fire off an SOS to 39-year-old John Afoa in France, the Crusaders were a class above as the 11-time Super Rugby kings piled on six tries to three in a bonus-point blowout at Orangetheory Stadium.

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Compounding the Waratahs’ woes was a knee injury to Wallabies World Cup hopeful Max Jorgensen, with the teenage fullback forced off after only 10 minutes.

For the home side, midfielder David Havili was forced from the field in the second half with a leg injury and was seen with strapping on his hamstring.

The match was as good as over at halftime with the Crusaders enjoying a 28-8 lead despite being on the back foot early.

The heavy defeat leaves the Waratahs assured of finishing the regular season in sixth spot, and Coleman and company will now be sweating on the Crusaders locking up the second position they presently occupy.

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Otherwise the Tahs face the grim prospect of having to return to Christchurch, where they haven’t won since 2004, in two weeks to face the Crusaders again in the sudden-death quarter-finals.

The Crusaders can secure second with a final-round victory over the Hurricanes in Wellington next Saturday before the Waratahs host Moana Pasifika later that night.

Afoa only arrived in New Zealand on Thursday afternoon but the 38-Test former All Black didn’t look out of place making the transition from the French second division back to Super Rugby for the first time in almost 5000 days, even being held up over the try line at one point.

“It’s been a whirlwind couple of days,. It’s been amazing,” Afoa said after his impressive, improbable 48-minute cameo.

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There was no sign of the one-way traffic early when the Waratahs were dominating territory and field position so much that referee James Coleman had to caution Crusaders captain Scotty Taylor for the home team conceding four penalties in the opening seven minutes.

He wasn’t kidding, with Leicester Fainga’anuku shown a yellow card shortly after.

But a lone penalty goal to Ben Donaldson was scant reward for the Waratahs’ hot start as the Crusaders made the visitors pay.

With Jorgensen out of the defensive line being treated, the Crusaders took full advantage with David Havili crossing for the first try in the 10th minute.

The Waratahs briefly regained the lead through a reply to skipper Jake Gordon but a driving maul try to captain Cody Taylor and a brilliant counter-attacking strike finished off by halfback Mitchell Drummond set the tone for the afternoon.

One positive for Coleman and company was the performance of barnstorming No.8 Langi Gleeson, who continues to draw comparisons with Wallabies great Toutai Kefu and added to his highlights reel with a beautiful offload for a second-half try to winger Dylan Pietsch.

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1 Comment
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Jen 739 days ago

Umm, not sure who ‘Scotty Taylor’ is and he wasn’t captaining the Crusaders last night - maybe a frankenstein version of Scott Barrett and Codie Taylor? 😆

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Tommy B. 1 hour ago
Rassie Erasmus wades into heated debate over Jaden Hendrikse antics

🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂

I’ll go with one more because it’s so funny but then I must stop. There’s only so long you can talk to the nutter on the bus.

There is no legal impediment in the GFA to ANY form of border. It’s mentioned very briefly and ambiguously but even then there’s a caveat ‘if the security situation permits’ which is decided by the British government as the border is an internationally, UN recognised formal border between sovereign states. Now, you can argue that this is because it was assumed it would always be in the EU context - but we all know the issue with ‘assumption’. As to your hilarious drivel about what you think is in the GFA, you clearly haven’t read it or at best not understood it. There are still 1,580 British Army troops in NI. The legal status of NI as part of the UK is unchanged.

So, there was a problem for those that wanted to use the border to complicate any future British government changing regulations and trade arrangements through domestic legislation. Hence ‘hard border’ became ANYTHING that wasn’t a totally open border.

This allowed the EU and their fanatical Remainer British counterparts to imply that any form of administration AT the border was a ‘hard border.’ Soldiers with machine guns? Hard border. Old bloke with clipboard checking the load of every 200th lorry? Hard border. Anything in between? Hard Border. They could then use Gerry’s implicit threats to any ‘border officials’ to ensure that there would be an unique arrangement so that if any future parliament tried to change trade or administrative regulations for any part of the UK (which the EU was very worried about) some fanatical Remainer MP could stand up and say - ‘this complicates the situation in NI.’

You’ve just had a free lesson in the complex politics that went WAY over your head at the time. You’re welcome.

Now, I must slowly back out of the room, and bid you good day, as you’re clearly a nutter.

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