Familiar territory for Crusaders
The Crusaders will travel to Sydney next week for their 11th Super Rugby Final full of confidence after their demolition of the Sharks.
The seven-times champions were ruthless in their 38-6 victory over Jake White's team, who made far too many basic errors to ever pose a real threat in Christchurch.
The Crusaders will head to Sydney this week to face a Waratahs team that topped the standings for what will be the first meeting between the Australian and New Zealand conference winners this season.
The Canterbury side is by far the most successful franchise in Super Rugby history, and usually get stronger as the competition progresses, with this year being no exception.
Captain Kieran Read admitted that it was particularly satisfying knowing that they have hit form ahead of the final against a dangerous Waratahs side.
"I'm extremely satisfied. Knowing that we're going to the big stage next weekend is an awesome feeling and I'm really pleased about the performance out there tonight," he said.
Read added that his team's fast start was key to their victory, as they never let the Sharks in with a sniff.
"We started really well and we were able to put a bit of pressure on them early.
"We played a pretty high tempo early that set the scene and sometimes when you travel it's hard to adjust and we actually caught them early," he said.
Sharks captain Bismarck du Plessis was left frustrated after his side let themselves down with an inaccurate performance which ended their season.
"It's extremely disappointing. Everything we worked on during the last two weeks…we couldn't field the high balls, couldn't play in the right areas," he said.
