'Very proud': Ardie Savea reflects on historic victory over the Crusaders

97 per cent of people on Super Rugby Pacific tipping predicted a Crusaders victory on Saturday night in Christchurch, where Moana Pasifika did the unexpected, beating the Crusaders at Apollo Projects Stadium.

On the night, Moana Pasifika scored the most points away to the Crusaders of any team this century, in their 45-29 triumph.

A double from inspirational skipper Ardie Savea helped them on their way, and constant breakdown pressure put the Crusaders on the back foot from the get-go.

Savea, who had a game-high 13 carries on Saturday evening, was pleased with his team’s passion in the performance.

“We kind of knew, no one was expecting us to win. So, the message was for the boys just to jam and play with nothing to lose,” Savea told Kirstie Stanway on the Sky Sports broadcast.

“And we certainly did that tonight. We came here, we did the job. I’m just proud of the boys, they deserve everything that comes their way, very proud.”

The Moana Pasifika captain puts the improvement down to the team’s willingness to learn.

“We just trying to uplift our rugby IQ and our smartness around that. I feel like we’re getting to that point where we can really put teams under pressure.”

Moana Pasifika head coach Tana Umaga has been part of many historic victories in his career, but says that this one is very special.

“Oh it’s very special, not many teams come down here and beat the Crusaders, with their legacy and the history that they have behind them,” Umaga told media post-match in Christchurch.

“Rob (Penney) has his side running quite well at the moment, to come down here and do that. It’s a proud moment for this group, our team and our club.

Umaga puts the inspirational performance down to his team’s spirit and understanding of the game plan.

“We just talked about the fight and the spirit within this team, and if we can match that with our performance for 80 minutes, just understanding our game and executing our plan, then we know we can compete against the best.

“I think that’s what it was, you saw we wanted to fight for everything that we could get and then once we’re in certain positions, we know when we get down into certain areas, teams find it hard to stop us.

“It’s just understanding all those things and then not buttoning off. That’s probably the biggest thing when we score, letting games get away from us right from the start.

“We talked at length about that this week and we feel we’ve rectified that.”

Umaga was quick to praise his captain, who has been a key part of the improvement in performances from Moana Pasifika this season.

“His whole influence within this group and our club has been huge, and you see it every week, and you see he really gives our players confidence and he leads with his heart.

“But also with that experience that he’s had, the players turn to him in those moments when good teams are getting on top of us.

“We probably missed him last week, but you saw this week when it happened again, he just settles them and then just goes through our process and goes back to what we do well, and then good things happen for us.”