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Warren Gatland's Chiefs shock Super Rugby champs Crusaders
By Online Editors
British and Irish Lions coach Warren Gatland continued to make a bold impression in Super Rugby on Saturday as he guided the Chiefs to a 25-15 win over three-time defending champions, the Crusaders.
The match pitted Gatland against Crusaders coach Scott Robertson, an applicant for the All Blacks head coaching role last year and a man many New Zealanders believed should have been given the job.
The Crusaders made an explosive beginning with two tries inside the first 15 minutes to All Blacks winger Sevu Reece, and looked set to dominate the game.
Playing with little possession, the unbeaten Chiefs managed to score a try of their own and to go to halftime only four points down at 12-8.
They seized the lead with another try only three minutes into the second spell which gave them the lead for the first time.
The Crusaders levelled the scores with a penalty but the Chiefs pulled away again with a try to winger Sean Wainui, and bravely held out waves of Crusaders attacks.
A penalty to flyhalf Aaron Cruden in the 78th minute meant the Crusaders had to score twice to win and they weren't up to the task.
The Crusaders have only lost two of their last 16 derby matches against New Zealand teams and both of those were to the Chiefs, following a loss in Suva last year.
"The thing you notice about these derbies and these matches that have a bit riding on them is that they're personal," said Chiefs captain Sam Cane after a willing second round encounter.
"They're physical, they're brutal and there were some key moments in that game that could have gone either way. But there were some big defensive efforts tonight and we just stuck at it."
One of the biggest defensive efforts came from Cane himself who made many crucial tackles and forced turnovers.
Cruden was again a steadying influence on the Chiefs, as was All Blacks fullback Damian McKenzie who played his first match of the season and acted as a second playmaker.
AAP
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Latest Comments
Turn it up. Give me your john A game would ya!
Go to commentsI didn't really get the should tone from it, but maybe because I was just reading it as my own thoughts.
What I read it as was examples of how they played well enough in every game to be able to win it.
Yeah I dunno if Ben wouldn't see it that way (someone else would for sure need to point it out to him though), I'm more in the Ben not appreciating that those close losses werent one off scenarios camp. Sure you can look at dubious decisions causing them to have to play with 14 or 13 men at the death as viable reasons but even in the games they won without such difficulties they made a real struggle of it (compared to how good some of their first half play was). This kind of article where you trying to point out the 3 losses really would most likely have been wins only really makes sense/works when your other performances make those 3 games (or endings) stand out.
There might have been a sentence here and there to ensure some good comment numbers but when he's signing off the article by saying things like ..
and..
I don't really see it. Always making sure people are upto date with the SH standing/perspective! NZ went through some tough times with so many different perspectives and reasons why, but then it was.. amusing how.. behind everyone was once they turned a corner. More of these 'unfortunate' results returned against SA and France at the start of the RWC which made it extra tasty to catch other teams out when they did bring it. So that created some 'conscious' perspective that I just kept going and sharing re thoughts on similar predicaments of other teams, I had been really confident that Wallabies displays vs NZ were real, that the Argentines can backup their thing against Aus and SA (and so obviously the rest), and current one is that England are actually consistent and improving with their attack (which everyone should get onboard with), and I'm expecting a more dominant display against Japan (even though they should have more of their experienced internationals for this one) that highlights further growth from July. 👍
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