Match action
THE Crusaders finally ended their long Super Rugby drought with victory yesterday over a 14-man Lions side in Johannesburg to clinch their first title since 2008.
The most successful of the Southern Hemisphere franchises, who won the title seven times up til 2008, have had to weather a barren spell since then, making just two finals under former boss Todd Blackadder in 2011 and 2014, and losing both.
This season they managed to put the pieces of the jigsaw together under former All Black Scott Robertson to claim their eighth crown in Roberston’s first campaign in charge since Blackadder left for Bath.
Despite the hostile Ellis Park crowd, the Crusaders struck early with two quick tries from Seta Tamanivalu and Jack Goodhue before a red card to Lions flanker Kwagga Smith swung the game firmly in their favour.
Chasing an Elton Jantjies bomb, Smith challenged David Havili in the air, and, with the Crusaders full-back landing on his head, referee Jaco Peyper had no choice but to send off the former Blitzbokke Sevens star.
Despite throwing everything they had at the Crusaders’ defence, playing with a man down proved too much to overcome for the Lions, especially after All Black No.8 Kieran Read scored early in the second half to open a 19-point lead.
Richie Mo’unga, who kicked ten points in all, added the second of his three-pointers from the tee to put the game to bed with 27 minutes to go. However the Crusaders had to display dogged defence in the final 15 minutes after two Lions tries from Malcolm Marx and Corne Fourie made the game interesting.
“It’s amazing,” said Crusaders captain Sam Whitelock. “We’ve been working hard over the past 12 months to get here so I’m really proud of everyone at the club.
“We knew the game wasn’t won at the break. The Lions are a great side so we knew we had to keep going in the second half because we saw how many points they scored in the last 20 minutes of games.
“Full credit to them because they put us under a huge amount of pressure but I’m just happy we managed to hang on.”
It was a frantic start to the game with the Lions attacking and the Crusaders keeping the ball in play once they secured the turnovers. Jantjies had the first attempt at scoring points with a drop-goal after four minutes but it drifted wide from 40m which allowed everyone to catch their breath before the 22 drop-out.
The Lions launched another attack and again the Crusaders forced the turnover, but this time they didn’t kick the ball away. Instead it popped into Tamanivalu’s hand and he fended off the first wannabe defender before putting his foot down and racing over untouched from 80m.
Despite having next to no possession, the Kiwis went 7-0 up after Richie Mo’unga slotted the conversion.
Their clinical attacking edge was on show again two minutes later when space was identified down the left flank and two precise passes from the outstanding Matt Tood and Read sent Goodhue in.
Mo’unga could not convert and Havili missed a long range effort 13 minutes later from half-way. Jantjies showed him how to do it with a fine strike to put the Lions on the board just before the game turned on its head, with Smith being sent off for his reckless challenge.
Mo’unga restored the Crusaders’ 12-point lead at the break with a penalty on the last play and it took them only three minutes to make it 22-3 in the second half as Read crashed over under the posts.
The conversion in front of the posts was no trouble for Mo’unga and neither was a penalty attempt ten
minutes later from 15m which left the Lions with an even bigger mountain to climb.
Throwing their lot into attack, the Lions managed to come back to within eight points after front rowers Marx and Cronje crossed but it wasn’t to be for the Johannesburg outfit who, like last year, ended their season with a defeat in the final.
Captain Jaco Kriel said: “We’ve had an amazing journey in 2017 and that’s not how we wanted to send Johan Ackermann away to Gloucester – but fair play to the Crusaders.
“They’re a champion side and we knew from the beginning it wasn’t going to be easy. Well done to them.”