Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

'Everything we threw at them, they stopped. We tried everything' - Whiteley

Super Rugby final captains Warren Whiteley and Sam Whitelock

Proud Lions captain Warren Whiteley acknowledged the Crusaders were deserving Super Rugby champions as they battled to a second straight final win.

ADVERTISEMENT

In a rematch of the 2017 final, the Crusaders again emerged with the title – their ninth – after a superb defensive showing that largely kept the dominant Lions at bay at AMI Stadium.

And although the visitors monopolised possession, Whiteley conceded that the Crusaders’ ability to deal with “the kitchen sink” made them worthy winners.

“I’m immensely proud. It’s been unbelievable the last couple of years,” Whiteley said. “I’m obviously gutted, a bit emotional to be honest, but just immensely proud of each and every individual.

“We gave it everything out there. Credit must go to the Crusaders, to Sam [Whitelock, captain] and his team, they were unbelievable. Everything we threw at them, they stopped. We tried everything, threw the kitchen sink at them.

“They deserve this win, but I’m immensely proud of our boys.”

Crusaders captain Sam Whitelock: “It was an outstanding season for the Emirates Lions and they deserved to be in the final for a third year in a row. It’s pretty awesome to win the trophy back-to-back and the capacity crowd was absolutely superb tonight.”

For the Highvelders it was a case of third time unlucky in as many successive finals, but they gave a worthy effort against a classy Crusaders outfit.

ADVERTISEMENT

The Emirates Lions had plenty of opportunities in the match and they dominated territory and possession. However, the Crusaders made much better use of their scoring opportunities and with their solid defence they nullified most of the visitors’ attacking threats.

The champions scored two first-half tries through Seta Tamanivalu and David Havili, while flyhalf Richie Mo’unga added the rest of the points with some accurate goal kicking. Elton Jantjies (No 10) slotted two penalties for the visiting team.

Hardworking flanker Cyle Brink scored the Highvelders’ first try in the second half with a powerful surge from a set piece to close the gap to 23-13 but the home side soon hit back with another converted try by Mitchell Drummond to stretch their lead to 30-13.

Warren Whiteley and his team refused to give up and piled on the pressure, and with Ryan Crotty in the bin for cynical play powerful hooker Malcolm Marx stormed over near the left corner to score his side’s second try and his twelfth of the season.

ADVERTISEMENT

The Crusaders hit back in typical fashion and it was Scott Barrett (lock) who finished off a quick lineout move to score another converted try to take the final score to 37-18.

Video Spacer
ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

J
JW 1 hour ago
'They smelt it': Scott Robertson says Italy sensed All Blacks' vulnerability

Even the 20/30 cappers did too I reckon.


IDK, I think Jordan has a limited life span in this side unless he can develop more to his game. Like you go on to mention, I think theyres more important things to worry about than the effectiveness of someone's extra strings, or secondary components to their game.


Bash backs are Fosters thing, and to a large part they've made it work. Theyre now one of the best teams in the world.


They boy's trucked it up a bit against Italy in the redzone, and against France, wasn't that effective without the right players probably.


Try and take a look at it this way. Dissapointed Havili and Blackadder were in the side? Havili despite clearly shown that he can't do what the team needs at 12 was kept on for the RWC. Back goes down and he brings in Blackadder who doesn't play. Refuses to drop Christie when he should and look who starts this season. Beauden Barret not playing well enough to keep his 10 jersey but we gotta keep him in the side. Weve only got one 8, we stuff developing another I'll just play Ardie every game.


This years team wasn't burdened overly with injuries but they were in every position Razor might have wanted to try and development, severely limiting options. I'm not defending Razor as there was also plenty of other opportunity to make up for it and he was a little gunshy, but I'm also not going to overly criticise him because he chose cohesion over a black slate.

How long are we going to keep blaming All Black failings on Ian Foster.

I think more and more people are on board with it being time to try alternatives, but then again, how would they have reacted to a loss against Italy? 😉

70 Go to comments
TRENDING
TRENDING TJ Perenara clarifies reference to the Treaty in All Blacks' Haka Perenara clarifies the reference to Treaty in All Blacks' Haka
Search