Crusaders romp to easy win despite All Black rust
ByThe six returning All Blacks played well at times for the Crusaders, but looked rusty in a scrappy 36-11 win over the Stomers in Christchurch.
With six new players in the line up the Crusaders were bound to lack a little cohesion, but the sheer number of basic handling errors will have many wondering what the All Blacks’ reconditioning squad did in their time off.
The Crusaders opened strongly against a Stormers’ side who lacked direction for much of the match. All Blacks’ captain Ritchie McCaw started strongly, effecting a turnover at the tackle in only the 3rd minute. First five Dan Carter had a chance to open the scoring in the 5th minute but his penalty attempt hit the upright. When handed the chance with his second penalty attempt in the 16th minute, Carter made no mistake, putting the Crusaders ahead.
The Stormers drew level in the 20th minute when first five Peter Grant kicked a long range penalty goal after a rare incursion into Crusaders’ territory. The first try of the match came from a Carter cross field kick which was gathered by winger Scott Hamilton right on the left hand touch line, Hamilton beat one would-be tackler before drawing the last man and sending centre Casey Laulala in for the first try. Carter would convert.
The Crusaders’ second try came just six minutes later when another Carter kick, this time a chip kick, was regathered by Laulala who set up right winger Rico Gear for his first try of the match. Following the same pattern the Crusaders could have had a third try from a kick just before the break, but Hamilton failed to cleanly take another pinpoint cross kick from Carter.
The first half was marred by almost every scrum having to be reset at least once. The Crusaders’ front row was clearly dominating their much larger opponents but referee Brent Bowden appeared to have no idea what was going on, often penalising the wrong player or giving players inconsistent advice on what he expected, at one stage telling the Crusaders to, “Stay higher, stay low.”
The second half began with the Crusaders dropping the ball, something which would become a pattern for the rest of the game. After regathering the ball the Stormers attacked down the left hand side through flanker Schaulk Berger who beat his opponent and send second five De Wet Barry over in the corner for the Stormers’ only try.
As the Crusaders’ drops continued, Grant drew the Stormers closer with another penalty goal. Carter answered with a penalty goal of his own in the 49th minute, adding two more in the 60th and 63rd minutes.
Amid seemingly endless scrum resets and nonsensical penalties, the Crusaders suddenly clicked together, putting together a move down the left flank with excellent support play until the Stormers finally ran out of defenders and fullback Leon MacDonald scored in the corner.
With the result beyond doubt both coaches began bringing on reserves, taking away further structure from a game which had little to begin with. Finally with time expired the Crusaders’ managed a fourth try, giving them a bonus point, when Gear scored his second try of the match with an overlap down the right wing.
Despite the convincing score line, this was a somewhat ugly win for the Crusaders, dropping a lot of ball and turning the ball over too often. The ugliness of the game was not helped by referee Bowden, whose penalties at the scrum baffled and frustrated many players and he eventually came to rely on advice from his touch judges for some of the simplest decisions late in the game.
The returning All Blacks earned a pass mark in this match, but just barely. Too many handling errors and a lack of power at the breakdown meant the Crusaders were starved of ball for long periods. McCaw played well against his Springboks opposite, but looks to have lost a great deal of lower body strength, being driven off the ball at the breakdown often. Carter controlled the flow of the game well but only run at the defensive line on a couple of occasions.
The bonus point win puts the Crusaders up the third equal on the table, while the Stormers head home stuck near the bottom of the table.
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The Crusaders romp to easy win despite All Black rust by Hamish McBrearty, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
