Razor to review ‘everything’
Crusaders coach Scott Robertson appears to have copped the Super Rugby champions’ latest red card and says they must improve in every area after a shock defeat in Sydney.
Replacement lock Hamish Dalzell was sent off for a high shot on Wallabies captain Michael Hooper in Saturday night’s 24-21 loss to the Waratahs.
Dalzell is almost certain to be banned this week. That will further deplete the Crusaders’ second row stocks after injuries to Mitchell Dunshea, Quinten Strange and Zach Gallagher and with skipper Scott Barrett still serving a four-game ban for a late high hit against the Blues.
Dalzell’s 67th minute red card was instantly followed by the sinbinning of flanker Pablo Matera for illegally sacking a maul, leaving the Crusaders down to 13 men on a night where Waratahs flanker Charlie Gamble was the bestperformed Cantabrian at Leichhardt Oval.
Minutes before his banishment Dalzell – a late call-up after 20-yearold Gallagher withdrew on match eve with a shoulder niggle – had escaped sanction for contact with a dipping Waratahs pivot Tane Edmed.
Robertson wasn’t looking to blame anyone else for the Crusaders’ struggles, certainly not the match officials.
Asked at the post-match press conference if he felt the red card was justified, Robertson said it was ‘‘difficult to judge’’ high tackles and there was sometimes ‘‘no clear line’’.
But he did concede: ‘‘Dalzy’s tackle technique needs to get better, I know that. He’s a big man [2.01m] but he could have done better around it.
‘‘It’s a bit disappointing for Hoops to take that head knock. There was no malice in it, but it
was definitely technically poor.’’
Hooper had to leave the field for a HIA, a big blow for the Waratahs after he and Gamble had bossed the Crusaders at the breakdown.
Gamble snaffled a game-saving turnover near fulltime to preserve the win and, in some ways, prove a point.
A North Canterbury product who played for St Bede’s College’s first XV, Gamble left for Sydney after a spell in the Crusaders’ academy and after failing to gain a place in Robertson’s New Zealand under-20 team following a poor trial.
Gamble played alongside another Cantabrian in the final stages, with Darfield club stalwart and Hawke’s Bay lock Geoff Cridge joining the fray in the final quarter.
The Waratahs stung the Crusaders from the outset when wing Dylan Pietsch scored their first try in the second minute.
Mark Nawaqanitawase doubled their lead 10 minutes later with another try off a neat Izaia Perese offload.
‘‘We were on the back foot straight away, 14 points down under a lot of pressure,’’ Robertson said.
It’s a rare game where the Crusaders fail to score a single point in the first half, but they found themselves 17-0 down at the break.
They fought back with a penalty try after Waratahs backrower Rahboni Warren-Vosayaco was sinbinned for offside play at a ruck on his own line.
Replacement flanker Sione Havili Talitui put the Crusaders within striking distance at 17-14 in the 60th minute after some concerted attacks.
But the Waratahs pulled further ahead through a penalty try when Matera was marched for his maul malfeasance a minute after Dalzell’s red card.
Substitute prop Fletcher Newell crashed over in the 74th minute to give the Crusaders a glimmer of hope but some mighty maul work by Jed Holloway and Gamble’s key steal sent the Sydneysiders home celebrating.
Asked what went wrong, Robertson said: ‘‘We’re looking for the answers ourselves, to be fair’’.
The Crusaders are still third but have yet to convince across the Tasman and Robertson said they would be ‘‘looking at everything’’ to rediscover their mojo ahead of Saturday’s game against the Western Force in Perth.
The Aussies are back, baby.
Thoughts that this six-week block of trans-Tasman fixtures to round out Super Rugby Pacific’s regular season would be merely a Kiwi jostle for positioning in the top four have been hoofed to touch.
With one of the biggest upsets in Super footy in recent times, the Waratahs’ 24-21 victory over the Crusaders in Sydney on Saturday night has thrown a cat amongst the pigeons going into the final month before the playoffs, while the Brumbies’ big 42-25 victory over the Hurricanes in Canberra yesterday only served to heighten the intrigue.
Last year the Australians managed just two wins over New Zealand opposition in 25 games of the trans-Tasman competition. Now all of a sudden this year they have three in two weeks, following on from the Brumbies’ victory over the Highlanders last weekend.
It wasn’t even just the wins that led to this narrative, though. The Reds and Force both went close to getting the job done on Friday night against the Chiefs and Blues, respectively, while the Rebels showed touches of class in their win over Moana Pasifika.
It wasn’t even just the wins that led to this narrative, though. The Reds and Force both went close to getting the job done on Friday night against the Chiefs and Blues, respectively, while the Rebels showed touches of class in their win over Moana Pasifika.
A fortnight after the Blues breathed new life into the competition with their droughtbreaking victory over the Crusaders in Christchurch, this latest round has further injected some zest, which can only do wonders for generally waning interest levels and on the back of the flop that was the Super Round in Melbourne.
Even fans on this side of the ditch will be welcoming the sight of the Aussies proving highly competitive, if not a little nervous about what could then transpire once Dave Rennie gets his hands on his Wallabies contingent.
The ridiculously inflated top eight quarterfinals system in the 12-team competition was always going to ensure some sort of interest deep into the regular season, but now there could even be some genuine fascination around the home playoff berths and then indeed the quarterfinals themselves.
Super scenes in Suva
Sunny skies, coconut trees, a colourful sea of 15,000 exuberant fans jam-packed in and dancing in the stands.
What romantic scenes they were in Suva on Saturday evening, as this Super Rugby Pacific finally revealed its true self, with the Fijian Drua hosting their first real home match.
And the hosts certainly gave
their adoring fans plenty to cheer about against the Highlanders, albeit just not quite able to provide the ultimate reward, in a 27-24 defeat.
While their fascinating clash against fellow newbies Moana Pasifika will be played in Sydney in a fortnight, the Drua will have one more game in Fiji to come – a final-round match-up against the Chiefs in Lautoka, in what will be
an unusually timed Friday 3pm clash.
Red-card watch
The count continues – it’s now six rounds in a row that we’ve seen send-offs (albeit Waratahs prop Angus Bell’s red card in the last round was over-turned), as players still come to grips with World Rugby’s hard-line stance on high contact.
After the flurry of five red cards in round seven, New Zealand Rugby referees manager Bryce Lawrence labelled it a ‘‘one-off’’.
Round 11 saw another three, with the Chiefs’ Samipeni Finau, Crusaders debutant Hamish Dalzell and Rebels second fiveeighth Ray Nu’u all given their marching orders.
It’s still looking a bit of a lottery in terms of how the referees adjudicate any mitigating factors, such as a ballcarrier’s dip in body height. But in the instance of Nu’u, his sickening hit on Christian Leali’ifano in the final stages of his side’s win over Moana Pasifika, was particularly galling.
That was because the 24-yearold Otago NPC rep was in his first game back after being suspended for a high shot against the Force two rounds prior. He had initially been given a three-week suspension for that but under World Rugby’s new initiative, he applied to undertake the Head Contact Process Coaching Intervention which is available to first-time offenders and wipes the final week of their sanction.
Looks like it’s back to school, champ.