Crusaders steal it at the death

The 20-19 (three tries to one) triumph gave the Crusaders a three-match clean sweep on their tour of South Africa and Australia.

It was not a convincing performance.

In fact it was the New Zealand franchise's worst performance of the season – an error-riddled, scrappy affair.

However, like all good teams, they found a way to win and will be happy to take home 12 log points from the trip.

The visitors were the dominant side for most of the match, but found themselves staring down the barrel of a shock defeat when they trailed 13-19 with just two minutes of play remaining – against a side with only one win from its previous six outings.

Costly mistakes were hurting the visitors in the second half, as the toll of their road trip appeared to catch up.

The Crusaders led 13-6 at half-time, with an early try to Mitchell Drummond and a second to Johnny McNicholl in the 26th minute, but the Force hung in there due to penalties.

The Force then grabbed the lead with their only try – through Ryan Louwrens, who came off the bench, to stun the Crusaders.

Down 13-19 going into the last 10 minutes, the Crusaders rallied to press strongly for the match-winning try.

But they wasted their own hard work through uncharacteristic errors, with a couple of knock-ons and Johnny McNicholl failing to catch the ball when he was on the end of a high kick and had an open try line a stride away.

Codie Taylor was also denied by just centimetres, when he was shunted into touch by the Force.

But just when all seemed almost lost Jordan Taufua was able to barge over close to the posts and narrow the margin to one point.

It left Richie Mo'unga, who had earlier missed two relatively easy conversions, with an easy kick to snatch the lead.

Crusaders captain Kieran Read was more relieved than elated after the win.

"I don't think it was a good performance to be honest, we made far too many errors," he said.

"Certainly not what we wanted to come here and do, but we'll take the win and get back to the drawing board next week when we get home.

"We're in a good place now in terms of results, but there is a lot of work to do."

Force skipper Matt Hodgson said his side let itself down in the dying minutes.

"The boys played well, but we gave them too many opportunities at the end," he said.

"They are a quality side and they took them – we gave them that many opportunities in our 22 in that last 10 minutes and they are going to come up with a result."

Man of the match: Mitchell Drummond was doing a fine job, until he was replaced by Andy Ellis early in the second half. Matt Todd, Jordan Taufua, Sam Whitelock and Luke Romano took it in turns to torment the Force. However, No.8 Kieran Read was the most steady player for his team in an unconvincing performance. Flyhalf Peter Grant kept the Force in the hunt with his accurate kicking and directed the show in the second half, while fullback Dane Haylett-Petty had his moments. You can always bank on Western Force loose forwards Ben McCalman and Matt Hodgson and they get our award – despite the defeat.

The scorers:

For the Western Force:

Try: Lourens

Con: Grant

Pens: Grant 4

For the Crusaders:

Tries: Drummond, McNicholl, Taufua

Con: Mo'unga

Pen: Mo'unga

Teams:

Western Force: 15 Dane Haylett-Petty, 14 Luke Morahan, 13 Ben Tapuai, 12 Solomoni (Junior) Rasolea, 11 Semisi Masirewa, 10 Peter Grant, 9 Alby Mathewson, 8 Ben McCalman, 7 Matt Hodgson (captain), 6 Angus Cottrell, 5 Adam Coleman, 4 Sitiveni (Steve) Mafi, 3 Tetera Faulkner, 2 Heath Tessmann, 1 Pekahou Cowan.

Replacements: 16 Nathan Charles, 17 Francois van Wyk, 18 Jermaine Ainsley, 19 Rory Walton, 20 Richard Hardwick, 21 Ryan Louwrens, 22 Ian Prior, 23 Albert Nikoro.

Crusaders: 15 Ben Volavola, 14 Johnny McNicholl, 13 Sean Wainui, 12 Ryan Crotty, 11 Nemani Nadolo, 10 Richie Mo'unga, 9 Mitchell Drummond, 8 Kieran Read (captain), 7 Matt Todd, 6 Jordan Taufua, 5 Sam Whitelock, 4 Luke Romano, 3 Owen Franks, 2 Codie Taylor, 1 Wyatt Crockett.

Replacements: 16 Ged Robinson, 17 Joe Moody, 18 Mike Alaalatoa, 19 Scott Barrett, 20 Jimmy Tupou, 21 Andy Ellis, 22 Kieron Fonotia, 23 Jone Macilai.

Referee: Ben O'Keeffe (New Zealand)

Assistant referees: Mike Fraser (New Zealand), Graham Cooper (Australia)

TMO: Ian Smith (Australia)