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Match Highlights: Magical Mo'unga inspires Crusaders to Super Rugby semi's

The Super Rugby play-offs have begun in familiar fashion, with the ruthless Crusaders pulling clear in the second half to beat the Highlanders 38-14 in their quarter-final in Christchurch.

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Five-eighth Richie Mo’unga scored two of their five tries and slotted all of his goalkicks in a 23-point haul as the nine-time champions took command of what had been a bruising South Island derby on Friday.

Up just 17-14 at the break, the implacable Crusaders sensed blood when Highlanders forward Liam Squire spent time in the sinbin, bagging two quick tries to effectively book another semi-final berth.

The eighth-ranked Highlanders were all aggression early on but were barely in the contest against the top qualifiers as the match wore on, failing to handle the intense second half pressure from a team chasing their third straight title.

Richie Mo'unga celebrates try
Richie Mo’unga celebrates try against Highlanders in Super Rugby quarter-final.(Photo by Dianne Manson/Getty Images)

The Crusaders will host the winner of Saturday’s Hurricanes-Bulls quarter-final in Wellington.

They will be hotly favoured if their All Blacks forward contingent play with the same muscle and Mo’unga with the same class.

Winger Sio Tomkinson’s try had the Highlanders 7-3 up through the opening quarter but the hosts leapt clear when Mo’unga put fullback David Havili across and then scored himself after some skilful Crusaders offloads.

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The Highlanders pulled the margin back to three after Teihorangi Walden slid through off a bullet pass from Aaron Smith.

A key moment was the yellow card shown to All Blacks flanker Squire for a no-arms tackle on opposite Whetukamokamo Douglas soon after the break.

The clinical Crusaders took advantage of the extra number with big drives to set up tries for Douglas and Michael Alaalatoa.

A 28th straight win in Christchurch was assured when Mo’unga scored from a chip and chase.

More pertinently, the champions have never lost a home finals match since the competition’s inception in 1996.

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The match marked the end of notable Super Rugby careers for six Highlanders.

All Blacks Ben Smith, Waisake Naholo, Luke Whitelock, Squire, Tom Franklin and Jackson Hemopo are all moving to offshore clubs next year.

AAP

In other news: Head coach Gibson quits Waratahs

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Flankly 2 hours ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

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