New competition, same old Crusaders.
The most successful team in Super Rugby history were far from perfect during a 42-32 win against the Hurricanes in Dunedin on Saturday, but they survived two yellow cards and were on the right side of every big momentum shift as Leicester Fainga’anuku started his year with three tries.
The Hurricanes had a year’s worth of bad luck, having three tries ruled out for the officials for a variety of reasons, and they will have reason to grumble about the ruling that prevented Ardie Savea from scoring what would have been a fine individual try in the second half.
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The TMO found a knock-on from veteran prop Ben May in the buildup, but it was marginal at best.
Still, you have to credit the Crusaders who seemed to feast on every bit of Hurricanes ill fortune.
Their set-piece was dominant when it needed to be, and in typical Crusaders fashion they managed the game superbly when prop Oli Jager was sent to the sin bin towards the end of the first half.
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In the eerily quiet surrounds of a near-empty Forsyth Barr Stadium, the opening quarter felt like a training run as the Crusaders cruised to handy lead on the back of two tries to Fainga’anuku.
At that stage it looked like the Crusaders wouldn’t need to get out of third gear, but the Hurricanes sparked into life as Wes Goosen, Jordie Barrett, Ardie Savea and Asafo Aumua started to get their hands on the ball.
The Hurricanes created plenty of opportunities, but the Crusaders bossed the third quarter as Fainga’anuku collected his third try from a clever lineout move and No 10 Fergus Burke kept the scoreboard ticking over with his accurate goalkicking.
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That blasted their 15-13 halftime to a handy advantage the Hurricanes couldn’t run down, despite the best efforts of the outstanding Barrett.
The big moment
Hurricanes hooker Asafo Aumua was denied a try at the end of the first half for a double movement – his knee clearly hitting the ground before he had a second crack and powered his way over. That would have put the Hurricanes into an 18-12 lead with an easy conversion to come, but from the resulting penalty the Crusaders marched upfield, won a penalty of their own and took the three points to head into halftime with a 15-13 lead.
Match rating
7 of 10. It was messy at times, and the first quarter wasn’t inspiring, but it picked up after the 20-minute mark
The big picture
The Crusaders return to Forsyth Barr Stadium next Saturday for the southern derby against the Highlanders. The men from Dunedin were poor against the Chiefs on Saturday, but the Crusaders will need to tidy up their discipline after conceding too many in the first half. The Hurricanes have a Sunday afternoon fixture against the Blues in Queenstown, and will likely be without Du’Plessis Kirifi, who left shortly after halftime after taking a heavy blow to the hip.
MVP
It’s hard on three-try hero Leicester Fainga’anuku, but Jordie Barrett was quite inspirational for the Hurricanes. The big fullback just carried on from where he left off last season, while Ardie Savea also started the season in strong form.
Scoring details
Crusaders 42 (Leicester Fainga’anuku tries 8 min, 11 min, 51 min, penalty try 65 min, Shilo Klein 69 min Fergus Burke 2 cons, 3 pens, Simon Hickey con). HT: 15-13
– This article originally appeared on stuff.co.nz and is reproduced with permission