Both the Crusaders and Moana Pasifika entered their round 15 matchup needing a bonus point win to keep their slim hopes of a quarter-final birth alive. This meant one thing; tries.
One team achieved that goal, and it was the reigning champions who won the night with a 43-10 margin on a typically chilly Christchurch evening. The Crusaders now need the Fijian Drua and Western Force to lose their respective contests in order to make the playoffs.
The Crusaders came out of the gates hugely energised but even with the dominant carries of Christian Lio-Willie, Moana Pasifika were able to absorb the pressure and win a penalty.
The Crusaders suffered an early yellow card when Joe Moody entered a tackle on Lotu Inisi upright and made high contact. Before long lock Antonio Shalfoon was helped from the field with an ankle injury.
The Crusaders gave away a stupid penalty right in front of the posts by hanging on to William Havili’s leg in the ruck, allowing Moana to claim the first points of the game through a penalty – although there appeared to be some confusion over that call given it was tries the team needed.
However, even with that yellow card, the hosts were on the scoreboard shortly after with a strong driving maul try finished by Ethan Blackadder.
With that proven recipe for success, the Crusaders went back to the driving maul four minutes later and were in for their second.
Moana had some lineout magic of their own to throw the Crusaders’ way, opting to play it off the back rather than muscle up, with the Inisi brothers connecting to see Fine touch down over the line draped in defenders.
The try scorer’s next impact on the game was an intercept attempt that resulted in a yellow card. Before the winger could even take his seat on the sideline, another Crusaders lineout drive saw Super Rugby’s all-time leading try-scoring forward Codie Taylor touch down yet again. Fergus Burke’s third conversion extended the lead to 21-10 as the clock ticked over 30 minutes.
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