Crusaders edge Sharks in bruising encounter

Intense. Agonisingly intense. It had all the intensity of Test between South Africa and New Zealand, this match between the Sharks and the Crusaders. There was courage out there and brave men playing to the extreme of their bravery.

Of course, it was not a pretty match but one that kept you alert and absorbed and unaware of the passing of time until the final whistle announced reality.

The reality was that the Crusaders had won, not by much but deserving of their victory for playing better rugby.

The Crusaders ran better, kicked better, scrummed better, were better in the line-outs, ran more metres, had more possession and most of the territory, won more breakdown ball and made more passes. That all suggests that the Crusaders' would have won by more, and they would have against a less resilient team. The one stat the Sharks won was the tackle. They made 108 tackles to 44. They made them because they had to, because they wanted to, because they were determined to.

Both teams deserve great admiration from all. It was a splendid rugby match, showing the world many of rugby's virtues.

Of course, the closeness of the scoring and the late hour at which the Crusaders finally went ahead added to the tension, building it into an agony. And yet had Richie Mo'unga kicked at all well, the Crusaders would have stretched out to a comfortable victory, but he missed three penalty kicks at goal and a conversion. 11 points in such a match could have altered the nature of the match.

His first miss was at the first scrum near the start of the match. In that early part the Crusaders dominated territory and possession. The Sharks could simply not shunt them out of their half. The nature of the Sharks' kicking did not help. Whereas the Crusaders kicked to grass, the Sharks kicked to hand, a Crusader hand.

But it took 25 minutes before the game broke its duck.

The Crusaders kicked a penalty into an attacking line-out and they made a maul. But the Shark defenders tore into them with much zeal and repelled them. The Crusaders then went wide right. There massive left wing Nemani Nadolo forced his way ahead in a half gap and sent a short, one-handed pass to his right where David Havili sliced through for a try which Mo'unga converted. 7-0.

Penalties were punishing the Sharks, They were penalised six times in the first half, four times at scrums. This also kept them on the defensive.

And then luck – good judgement rather – was on their side. The Crusaders were moving right from a line-out inside the Sharks' half, somewhere near their 10-metre line. Mo'unga threw a long skip pass out to his right and there was Lwazi Mvovo to intercept it and off the fast, sturdy win raced, chased by  Johnny McNicholl. Mvovo got home for the try and Joe Pietersen converted. The conversion was interesting. Pietersen missed the first time but was given a second chance as a Crusader had charged early. The second time he got it over. 7-7 after 37 minutes.

That was the half-time score after Mo'unga had missed another penalty attempt.

Incredible as it seems, the Sharks went ahead early in the second half. Again the Crusaders were going to the right and this time it was their hands that let them down. Kieron Fonotia passed to Ryan Crotty, an awkward pass that ended up on the ground. Mvovo stooped, picked up the ball cleanly and ran some 36 metres to score his second try. 14-7 to the Sharks after 45 minutes.

The Sharks made a gigantic mess of the kick-off and it seemed that the Crusaders had to score as they went left but Matt Todd grubbered to his left, presumably for Nadolo but the ball went off into touch and the Sharks survived.

There was a bit of a dispute between André Esterhuizen and Andy Ellis when Havili can flying into Esterhuizen's back, shoulder first, for which he was sent to the sin bin.

There was no sign that the Crusaders were missing their fullback as they launched an attack down the right with Todd prominent. They then went wide left where Nadolo got over right in the corner despite the desperate efforts of Tendai Mtawarira and Willie le Roux to stop him. The TMO confirmed that Nadolo had grounded the ball on a bit of goal-line, just before touch. 14-12 after 52 minutes.

The Crusaders thought they had scored from the wayward kick-off. It sailed directly into touch where McNicholl got the ball and ran up towards the half-way line with it. On the way he passed inside to Crotty who immediately gave to Fonotia who set off down the touchline. As Philip van der Walt tackled him he passed inside to McNicholl who was over, but the TMO saw that just before he passed the ball Fonotia had a heel on the touchline.

The Sharks also thought that they had scored.

The Crusaders were intent on attacking when Havili lost the ball forward. Jaco Reinach picked it up and hoofed it downfield. Le Roux set off after the ball, got it and was over for what every Natalian thought was a try. But the TMO declared that Le Roux had been just a fraction in front of Reinach and so offside.

And so the battle raged on with the Sharks just two points ahead.

McNicholl broke to set the Crusaders attacking and they went through 14 phases. Many phases usually end up with no scoring but not in this case as Ellis put Kieran Read into a gap and the big man stepped out of Esterhuizen's tackle to score at the posts. Nadolo converted. 19-14 with seven minutes to go.

Those seven minutes were a 0-0 draw and the final whistle went with the Crusaders delighted victors.

It was a match of high standard.

Man of the Match: There was a case for Johnny McNicholl who created opportunities for his side but in the end our choice is the big Fijian Nemani Nadolo. He was always a man for the Sharks to reckon with and whenever he was involved he drew more than one Shark to him. He scored a vital try and made a vital try. His fielding of the ball and his return of kicking was exceptional.

The scorers:

For Sharks:

Tries: Mvovo 2

Cons: Joe Pietersen 2

For Crusaders:

Tries: Havili, Nadolo, Read

Cons: Mo'unga, Nadolo

Yellow card: David Havili (Crusaders, 48 – dangerous play, shoulder charge)

Teams:

Sharks: 15 Willie le Roux, 14 JP Pietersen, 13 Paul Jordaan, 12 Andre Esterhuizen, 11 Lwazi Mvovo, 10 Joe Pietersen, 9 Cobus Reinach, 8 Philip van der Walt, 7 Jean-Luc du Preez, 6 Marcell Coetzee, 5 Stephan Lewies, 4 Etienne Oosthuizen, 3 Coenie Oosthuizen, 2 Franco Marais, 1 Tendai Mtawarira (captain).

Replacements: 16 Kyle Cooper, 17 Juan Schoeman, 18 Lourens Adriaanse, 19 Hyron Andrews, 20 Daniel du Preez, 21 Michael Claassens, 22 Garth April, 23 Odwa Ndungane.

Crusaders: 15 David Havili, 14 Johnny McNicholl, 13 Kieron Fonotia, 12 Ryan Crotty, 11 Nemani Nadolo, 10 Richie Mo'unga, 9 Andy Ellis, 8 Kieran Read (captain), 7 Matt Todd, 6 Jordan Taufua, 5 Samuel Whitelock, 4 Scott Barrett, 3 Owen Franks, 2 Codie Taylor, 1 Joe Moody.

Replacements: 16 Ben Funnell, 17 Wyatt Crockett, 18 Mike Alaalatoa, 19 Luke Romano, 20 Jimmy Tupou, 21 Tim Boys, 22 Mitchell Drummond, 23 Ben Volavola.

Referee: Jaco Peyper

Assistant referees: Jaco van Heerden, Cwengile Jadezweni

TMO: Johan Greeff