Match Highlights - Mo'unga shines as clinical Crusaders reach Super Rugby final
Richie Mo'unga sparkled as the Crusaders blew the Hurricanes away to reach the Super Rugby final with a 30-12 victory at AMI Stadium on Saturday.
The defending champions were relentless in Christchurch, overpowering their New Zealand rivals and showing great quality with ball in hand as well as magnificent defence to set up a showdown with the Lions or the Waratahs.
Fly-half Mo'unga gave another demonstration of his ingenuity, pulling the strings and scoring 15 points - including the first of four Crusaders tries - as his side stretched their unbeaten home play-off record to 20 matches.
George Bridge, David Havili and Braydon Ennor also went over in a dominant display from Scott Robertson's side, who bossed the set-pieces and will be strong favourites to retain their title with home advantage next Saturday.
Julian Savea and Ben Lam touched down for the Hurricanes, but they were comfortably second best in Chris Boyd's last match before taking over as Northampton Saints director of rugby.
The Crusaders have never lost a semi-final or final against the Hurricanes and they were behind 15 minutes in when Mo'unga threw a dummy and dotted down after a spell of sustained pressure.
Savea was awarded a try at the other end when he was adjudged to have grounded the ball reaching out under pressure in the corner, but Bridge stepped inside to put the holders back in front after more powerful work from the forwards.
Two Mo'unga penalties in as many minutes just before half-time gave the Crusaders an 18-7 lead and Havili took a pass from Bryn Hall before slicing his way through to go over early in the second half after great work from Jack Goodhue.
Mo'unga showed his class again to get his head up and set up Ennor for Crusaders' fourth five-pointer with a sublime cross-field kick.
Prolific wing Lam crossed for the Hurricanes right at the end, but that was scant consolation, Brad Shields stepping up to strike the post with a conversion attempt in his final match before joining Wasps.
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Spot on Ben. Dead right. Havili looked great at 10. Easily the highest rugby IQ of any NZ player these days. Getting a kick charged down is a result of getting used to adjusting your depth to the line at 10, which he will sort out with time. But other than that it was an outstanding first effort in that position this year. I think the NZ media has misunderstood this directive from Razor. Havili might rank behind B Barrett this year, but Beuden is 33 this month and won't last much longer. DMaC is great but flaky and not really a test match animal (his efforts in Dunedin versus Aus last year for example). If Razor can't have Mounga, DMaC is too unstructured for Razor (and is just too small for test rugby). Havili will end up our first choice first five, and in partnership with Jodie will be excellent. Two triple threat operators in tandem, and big bodies and tough tacklers to boot. Jordoe will be the ABs goal kicker. I am an Aucklander and Blues (and Warriors) fan, but Havili at 10 is going to be sensational in timeā¦ he can be the best first five in the world by the end of this year. No question.
Go to commentsSharks deserved to be far further back by the last quarter. Their tackling was awful, their set pieces were disappointing, their defensive organization was poor (especially on the Kok side of the D line), they kept making unnecessary errors, and they never looked like cracking the Clermont defense during those first 60m. Masuku kept them in touch, with some help from the Clermont generosity on penalty opportunities. Agree with the writer of this article. It was belligerence, and ability to raise their pressure game just enough, that turned the last quarter into a Bok-style shutout. Clermont have a reputation of not playing the full 80m, and there was a bit of that for sure. But, quite often when the intensity of a team drops off in the last quarter credit is due to the opponent for tiring them out. At 60m, with the Kok try, you thought that just maybe the game was on. At 70m, with the Mapimpi contribution, one felt that Clermont were fading, while facing a team that would maintain the pressure game through the final whistle. Good win in the end, but the Sharks are still playing way below their potential. And with their resources, and a coach that has had enough time to figure things out, they are running out of excuses.
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