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Crusaders flex muscles by overcoming Chiefs in bounce back victory
By Alex McLeod
The Crusaders have turned the tables on the Chiefs with a 34-19 win to spoil their Hamilton Super Rugby Pacific homecoming.
A barnstorming Sevu Reece scored with 20 minutes to play to swing the game in the Crusaders' favour.
His devastating line break and try came against the run of play as the Chiefs, who started the half down by just three points thanks to two first-half tries from Alex Nankivell, looked for a go-ahead try.
Leicester Fainga'anuku then carried four men over the line from close range to all but seal the second-placed Crusaders' fourth win from five starts as crowds returned to New Zealand Super games.
The Chiefs remain in fifth place and will have concerns over star lock Brodie Retallick after he left the field late in the first half with a thumb injury.
Crusaders captain Scott Barrett said the loss a fortnight ago had stung his side into action.
"Last time they hurt us at home; it's a tough place to come out on top here, we talked out effort all week," he said after the five tries to three win.
"Last time the Chiefs had better of it, dominated physically.
"We had to turn up physically and I thought the boys showed plenty of effort in that area."
Chiefs skipper Sam Cane lamented their inability to match the competition heavyweights.
"To be fair they won the majority of the little battles that go on inside a rugby game," he said.
"They put us under a lot of pressure ... it's disappointing at home for the first time in a long time, because today we took a couple of backward steps.
"But credit has to go to the Crusaders for the pressure and attitude they showed up with tonight.
"Man it makes you appreciate it when you haven't had it for a wee while."
- Murray Wenzel
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Latest Comments
Steve Borthwick appointment was misguided based on two flawed premises.
1. An overblown sense of the quality of the premiership rugby. The gap between the Premiership and Test rugby is enormous
2. England needed an English coach who understood English Rugby and it's traditional strengths.
SB won the premiership and was an England forward and did a great job with the Japanese forwards but neither of those qualify you as a tier 1 test manager.
Maybe Felix Jones and Aled Walter's departures are down to the fact that SB is a details man, which work at club level but at test level you need the manager to manage and let the coaches get on and do what they are employed for.
SB criticism of players is straight out of Eddie Jones playbook but his loyalty to keeping out of form players borne out of his perceived sense of betrayal as a player.
In all it doesn't stack up as the qualities needed to be a modern Test coach /Manager
Go to commentsBut still Australians. Only Australia can help itself seems to be the key message.
Blaming Kiwis is deflecting from the actual problem.
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