Crusaders below best in victory
Perhaps it was the swirling breeze from Wollongong Beach, or the fact this was part of their first trip abroad in more than a year. But despite the bonus-point win suggesting otherwise, the Crusaders were far from their best against the Waratahs in their Super Rugby Transtasman match in Wollongong yesterday.
“I think we got a bit loose at times trying to chase points and tries for this competition,” Crusaders captain Scott Barrett said. “We saw what the Waratahs did; they’ve got plenty of attacking flair and put points on us, which is a little bit disappointing.
“The boys are seeing what’s in front of them and playing, so that’s encouraging, but we gave a lot of pill away — in the first half especially, seven turnovers — so there’s plenty for us to work on.”
The Crusaders made their intentions to play with the ball in their hands early, looking to run it out of their own 22 rather than play the territory game, and for good reason. Working off the back of strong hit-ups from the forwards — Sione Havili Talitui, in particular, looking to run over the top of anyone who dared get in his way — the Crusaders’ backline weapons struck. With the likes of Richie Mo’unga, Sevu Reece, Will Jordan and Leicester Fainga’anuku finding room, there was no shortage of speed to exploit the space.
Mitchell Drummond, Codie Taylor and Barrett were among the benefactors of full-field efforts from the Crusaders, sparked by chancing their arm deep in their own territory.
Leading 26-9 at the break — scoring two of their three tries of the half between the 35th and 40th minutes — the Crusaders kicked on early in the second half with Barrett crossing just two minutes after the restart.
The Waratahs kicked back into gear after that, applying plenty of pressure to the Crusaders and eventually cracking the defence through winger Jack Maddocks. He was soon followed over by centre Izaia Perese to make the margin just 10 points with plenty of time to play.
That was as close as they got for the rest of the match, however, as the Crusaders ran in three more tries, although the Waratahs had the final say through winger Alex Newsome.
Waratahs 28 (Jack Maddocks, Izaia Perese, Alex Newsome tries; Will Harrison 2 cons, 3 pens) Crusaders 54 (Mitchell Drummond, Codie Taylor, Sevu Reece, Dallas McLeod, Scott Barrett, Leicester Fainga’anuku, Bryn Hall, Will Jordan tries; Richie Mo’unga 7 cons). HT: 9-26.