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Whitelock proud of champion Crusaders
By Christopher Devine
Crusaders captain Sam Whitelock hailed the "true grit" of his side after they claimed an eighth Super Rugby crown with victory over the Lions in Johannesburg.
Although the hosts staged an admirable late fightback with 14 men after falling 22 points down and losing Kwagga Smith to a 39th-minute red card, the Crusaders were able to triumph 25-17.
"I'm just so proud of the boys and the way they've fronted [up], especially today," said Whitelock during the post-match presentation.
"It's just been an amazing year. The Lions are a great side, they've shown it all year. They've scored a massive amount of points. We knew we had to keep playing, keep attacking.
"Full credit to them, they put us under a massive amount of pressure. The boys just showed their true grit that I know they have."
Lions skipper Jaco Kriel was gracious in defeat and showed emotion as he paid tribute to the club's outgoing players and coach Johan Ackermann, who will now take over Premiership side Gloucester.
"It was really an incredible year for us. I'm really proud of every single one of them," said Kriel after the Lions' second successive final loss.
"It's not the way we want to send out our players that are going away and it's not the way we want to send away coach, but we really love them and we wish them all the best.
"Well done to the Crusaders, they're a championship side."
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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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