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Result: Cruising Crusaders clinch semi-final berth
By Jack Davies
The Crusaders breezed into the Super Rugby semi-finals with a 17-0 victory over the Highlanders at AMI Stadium on Saturday.
On a rain-soaked evening in Christchurch, All Blacks Kieran Read and Codie Taylor crossed for first-half tries before a scoreless second period saw the home side into the last four.
The result - a departure from the three-point margin of the two regular-season matches between these sides - earns the Crusaders a home tie against the Stormers or the Chiefs, who meet in Cape Town later on Saturday.
The Highlanders lost Liam Squire to the sin bin inside five minutes and Richie Mo'unga - the man on the receiving end of the flanker's late tackle - kicked the first points of the match from the resulting penalty.
The Crusaders were dominating possession and territory but saw two opportunities to stretch the advantage pass them by as Mo'unga struggled with tricky conditions.
Read eventually made the pressure count with a try after 33 minutes, crashing over from a pick and go before Mo'unga rediscovered his kicking boots.
Another try followed on the stroke of half-time as Taylor snuck over, and Mo'unga's third successful kick proved to be the last points-scoring action of the match.
The Highlanders had left themselves with too much to do as the rain continued to pour down, making handling increasingly difficult as full-time approached, and the Crusaders held on to maintain their bid for a first title since 2008.
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There is nothing particularly significant about Ireland in this regard compared to other Tier 1 nations. To look at 'strategy' for illegal play its best to see what teams push boundaries with new laws. SA have milked two tries at ruck block downs. The strategy is to charge the first few before the ball is out at about 4 seconds but pull out and put up hands in reigned apology. The referees usually allow the scum half to clear without awarding a penalty in this scenario. The problem with that being that the scrumhalf is now taking over 5 seconds through no fault of his own. Having achieved a few slow balls > 5s , the SA forward can now pick a scrum to charge dead on 5s. Now if the scrum half waits, he will concede a penalty, as we saw against Scotland. With the new rule in place, any early charge should result in an immediate penalty.
SA also got an offside block against England which was pivotal again after a couple of 'apologetic' offside aborted charges forcing England to clear slowly.
Go to commentsYep, you're not the sharpest tool in the shed are you?
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