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Crusaders crush Rebels, Highlanders down Waratahs
By Peter Thompson
Ruthless Crusaders maintained their perfect Super Rugby record this season with a 41-19 bonus-point drubbing of Rebels after Highlanders turned on the style in the second half to see off Waratahs.
There appears to be no stopping the runaway New Zealand Conference leaders, who ran in six tries at AAMI Park to match the run of 13 straight victories which the 2002 Crusaders team achieved.
Scott Robertson's side were a class apart from the Rebels, blowing the Melbourne outfit away in the first half with another ominous display.
Israel Dagg made his comeback as Jed Brown crossed twice in a first half which also included tries from Manasa Mataele and Seta Tamanivalu.
David Havili burst through for another Crusaders five-pointer after the break and Mitchell Drummond added a sixth following a powerful run from Jordan Taufua, with Richie Mo'unga scoring 11 points from the tee.
Marika Koroibete scored a try in each half for Rebels, who have now lost five in a row and suffered a further blow when Sean McMahon went off late after suffering an arm injury.
Another strong win on the road tonight! Awesome to see red & black in the crowd too - your support means so much!! #REBvCRU #crusadeon pic.twitter.com/OFoaQsvkRg
— BNZ Crusaders (@crusadersrugby) May 27, 2017
Highlanders reeled off a ninth consecutive victory, but they had to come from behind to defeat the Tahs 44-28 at Forsyth Barr Stadium.
The 2015 Super Rugby champions trailed 14-13 at the interval as a result of clinical finishes from Israel Folau and Taqele Naiyaravoro after Richard Buckman punished a poor Bernard Foley grubber kick to go over.
Highlanders took charge after Dean Mumm was sin-binned for what was deemed to be a dangerous tackle on Elliot Dixon, with Liam Coltman and Tevita Li scoring in quick succession.
The replacements also had a big say, Lima Sopoaga particularly impressive as he scored a try and pulled the strings, while Rob Thompson and Daniel Lienert-Brown also dotted down as Highlanders moved second in the New Zealand Conference.
Cheetahs ended a nine-match losing streak in emphatic fashion, Uzair Cassiem running in two of their seven tries in a 47-7 rout of Sunwolves in Tokyo.
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Latest Comments
GB is England, Scotland, Wales. They are the 3 constituent countries in Great Britain. Ergo playing only those three countries is a tour of GB. The difference between GB and the UK is Northern Ireland. It's not a huge deal to be accurate and call places by their correct name. But please refrain from your idiotic attempts to BS that GB=UK. It doesn't.
Go to commentsThe 2023 draw was only criticized when it became apparent that the top 5 sides in the world were on the same side of the draw. Nowhere did they discuss the decision to backtrack to 2019 rankings which ensured that England and Wales (ranked #12 in 2023) were ranked top4.
The parties who trashed out the schedule were England Rugby, NZ Rugby and ITV. It is bordering on corrupt that a Rugby nation has the power to schedule its opponents to play a major match the week before facing them in a QF.
You won't find commentary by members of the relevant committees because a committee did not make the scheduling decision. I have never heard members of World Rugby speak out on the draw or scheduling issues.
For example in 2015 Japan were hammered by Scotland 4 days after beating SA. The criticism only happens after a cock up.
A fair pool schedule is pretty straightforward: The lowest two tanked teams must play on last pool day but not against each other. That means that TV can focus on promoting big matches with a Tier2 involved for that Friday.
Why does NZ Always get its preferred slot playing the hardest pool match on day 1?
Why do other teams eg France, Ireland, Scotland get so often scheduled to play a hard match the week before the QFs?
If you believe the rules around scheduling are transparent then please point me in the right direction?
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