Crusaders need discipline lessons
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Crusaders captain Kieran Read said, despite his team's emphatic victory over the Sharks in Durban, some of his players need lessons in fair play.
The Crusaders were shown three yellow cards, all overlapping, in the first half.
However, little damage was done as the Sharks squandered any advantage by receiving a red card of their own.
Although the Sharks were unable to make their numerical advantage count on the scoreboard while the Crusaders were down to 12 men – in fact, the visitors added to their score – Read is still not happy with the those individual's actions.
"It was not ideal," Read said after the match.
"We have to learn a few lessons, those individuals especially."
However, the captain was happy to see that the loss of personnel allowed the team to galvanize, rather than fall apart.
"The way we defended the last two three minutes before half time is a real credit to where this team is at.
"We have certainly taken a few positive steps in the last couple of weeks.
"But we do not want to be giving too many cards a way.
"So we have to do something about that."
Read puts down the Crusaders clinical performance to their opening stanza of play, where they had the Sharks 14 points down within five minutes.
"The start really kicked it off for us," Read added.
"We did not give them a sniff, and in games like this, in Super Rugby, if you do get points up it is hard for teams to come back.
"We needed to keep playing decently, even with the yellow cards – that is what served us well.
"We looked after the ball and ran them around the field – that is a strength of ours that we need to keep improving.
"Getting those two tries really set up the game."
By Darryn Pollock
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