Crusaders brush Blues aside
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The Crusaders cruised to a 34-11 bonus point victory over the Blues at Eden Park to keep their play-off hopes alive.
The bonus point win moved the Crusaders into seventh place and they are forced to rely on other results going their way to keep their feint hopes alive.
Their four tries to one victory gave the Crusaders back-to-back bonus points wins after their 35-18 defeat of the table-topping Hurricanes last week.
With Dan Carter back at his natural home of flyhalf, after spending most of the year in the centre, the Crusaders have won consecutive games for the first time since Round Six.
The improvement, built around Carter's astute reading of the game, has underscored an inconsistent season which has jeopardised their chance of extending a remarkable 14-year run of making the knockout stages.
They still did not look the complete package against the Blues whose chances of finishing in the top six were lost weeks ago and who treated this match as a warm-up for next year.
Coach John Kirwan, having presided over a side that has lost 12 of 15 games and with 12 squad members injured, opted to pick a host of youngsters saying he wanted to test them out ahead of next season.
But rather than look like lost rookies, the Blues dominated the opening stages and clocked up a 6-0 lead through two Ihaia West penalties.
They then refused to buckle when the Crusaders bounced back with a brilliant piece of expertise by Nemani Nadolo, who leaped high to grab a Carter corner kick one handed to score their first try.
The Crusaders were immediately back on the attack but for 12 minutes they were held out by a resolute Blues defence, bravely led by flyhalf West.
To end the stalemate the Crusaders quit a series of unproductive scrums for Carter to kick a penalty allowing them to regroup.
With their next onslaught, Luke Romano scored the Crusaders second try from a quick line-out and Carter's conversion putting them 17-6 up at half-time.
The Crusaders looked to secure the win before going for the four-try bonus point as Carter kicked another close-range penalty early in the second half to extend the lead to 20-6.
But even with a comfortable buffer, and with All Blacks Sam Whitelock and Ryan Crotty unleashed off the bench, the Crusaders still made hard work of breaking through the defensive shield put up by the Blues' greenhorns.
It was not until the final quarter that they bagged the remaining two necessary tries for the bonus point, and both result from their forward dominance.
The first was a penalty try after the Blues scrum collapsed on the line, and the second was scored by Matt Todd from a line-out drive.
Ben Lam scored a late try for the Blues.
Man of the match: George Moala was threatening for the Blues while Nemani Nadolo showed his class once again for the Crusaders, but our award goes to Dan Carter who controlled the match expertly and looks to be hitting some form at just the right time.
The scorers:
For Blues:
Try: Lam
Pens: West 2
For Crusaders:
Tries: Nadolo, Romano, Todd, penalty try
Cons: Carter 4
Pens: Carter 2
Teams:
Blues: 15 Matt Vaega, 14 Ben Lam, 13 Hamish Northcott, 12 George Moala, 11 Melani Nanai, 10 Ihaia West, 9 Jimmy Cowan, 8 Airi Hunt, 7 Brendon O’Connor, 6 Joe Edwards, 5 Josh Bekhuis, 4 Will Lloyd, 3 Ofa Tu’ungafasi, 2 James Parsons (captain), 1 Sam Prattley.
Replacements: 16 Keven Mealamu, 17 Nic Mayhew, 18 Sione Mafileo, 19 Hayden Triggs, 20 Chris Vui, 21 Jamison Gibson-Park, 22 Simon Hickey, 23 Matt McGahan.
Crusaders: 15 Tom Taylor, 14 Nafi Tuitavake, 13 Robbie Fruean, 12 David Havili, 11 Nemani Nadolo, 10 Dan Carter, 9 Mitchell Drummond, 8 Jordan Taufua, 7 Richie McCaw (captain), 6 Matt Todd, 5 Dominic Bird, 4 Luke Romano, 3 Owen Franks, 2 Codie Taylor, 1 Wyatt Crockett.
Replacements: 16 Ben Funnell, 17 Alex Hodgman, 18 Nepo Laulala, 19 Sam Whitelock, 20 Luke Whitelock, 21 Andy Ellis, 22 Ryan Crotty, 23 Kieron Fonotia.
Referee: Chris Pollock
Assistant referees: Ben O'Keeffe, Jamie Nutbrown
TMO: Ben Skeen
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