Mataele’s magic offloads could be over

Manasa Mataele produced an offload for the ages, but it could be the last magical moment he produces this year after picking up what appeared to be a serious knee injury.

The Crusaders’ Fijian-born wing wowed Super Rugby fans on Saturday night, when he set up pivot Richie Mo’unga with a scarcely believable offload off the deck in the first half of his team’s 38-22 win against the Hurricanes in Christchurch.

Having miraculously stayed in touch after bumping off Gareth Evans, Mataele’s face was in the dirt when he hit Mo’unga with a speculator which caught everyone but the try-scorer napping.

However, the wing’s memorable night ended in the second half after he went down with a knee injury, and the fact he couldn’t walk off the field didn’t fill Crusaders coach Scott Robertson with confidence he would be back anytime soon.

‘‘We have to have a scan on it but it didn’t look great. So he’s straight to hospital,’’ Robertson said post match.

It’s a bitter blow for Mataele, who had more than looked the part on the right wing, the position his uncle, Seta Tamanivalu, occupied the past two seasons for the red and blacks.

Mataele scored two tries in last week’s season opener against the Blues, and was having a field day against the Hurricanes before he went down in an innocuous looking tackle.

His departure in the 63rd minute marked the Crusaders’ final substitution. Up 31-0 shortly after play resumed in the second half, Robertson had already unloaded his bench.

But there was more frustration in the home side’s coaching box after Mataele went off. The Crusaders lost their shape and conceded three tries, including two at the death, which rubbed a bonus point out.

‘‘Our game management in the last three or four minutes is something we have to learn from. Two tries to take the bonus point away is probably the only disappointing thing other than [Mataele’s] knee,’’ Robertson said.

‘‘To score that amount of points and give away a couple right at the end . . . just the amount of changes we made. Forced, had to, with the minutes around the All Blacks and guys having not played for a while, too.’’

Despite adding a tinge of respectability to the scoreline late, Hurricanes hooker Dane Coles, in his first Super Rugby start since 2017, wasn’t about to let his team off the hook.

He knows full well their first half performance wasn’t good enough, with a series of lost lineouts and 24 missed tackles crippling them as they went to the sheds 24-0 down.

‘‘It’s not good enough. We pride ourselves on our defence. If you miss [24] tackles against a quality Crusaders side you’re in for a long day. Defence is about attitude, we have to look ourselves in the mirror over the next couple of days,’’ he said.

‘‘It was a very disappointing result. I think the damage was done in the first half. They just seemed to click and our defence let us down. Too many missed tackles and offloads and we couldn’t slow their ball down.’’

While they lifted their tackle percentage in the second half, the Hurricanes had six of their 15 lineouts nabbed by the defending champions.

Coles put his hand up for some of them, although also credited the opposition.

‘‘I have to take some of the heat for that. They’ve got a pretty good defensive read on lineouts, and just be a bit more smarter around space at the front. You’ve got to give them the respect they deserve and we should have just taken that.

‘‘That’s the standard of what it takes to win a comp like this. There is no off days in Super Rugby, so it’s a good lesson for this group and we’ve just got to make sure we learn from those lessons and pull finger next week.’’