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Mataele stars as Crockett makes history in Crusaders rout

Crusaders’ record-breaking prop Wyatt Crockett

Manasa Mataele claimed a first-half hat-trick and Kieran Read scored on his return as eight-try Crusaders thrashed Sunwolves 50-3 in Wyatt Crockett’s record-breaking Super Rugby appearance.

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Crockett led the free-scoring seven-time champions out at AMI Stadium on an emotional Friday night for the long-serving New Zealand prop, who has now played more Super Rugby games than any other player.

The stalwart was given a standing ovation when he came off along with All Blacks captain Read early in the second half after surpassing Keven Mealamu’s tally of 175 appearances in the competition.

It was also a big evening for Read, who played 40 minutes for Christchurch club University last weekend and made his first Hurricanes appearance of the year against Sunwolves after recovering from wrist surgery.

The inspirational number eight made up for lost time in wet conditions, powering his way over for the opening try following a driving maul 13 minutes in and Ben Funnell added another with Sunwolves under immense pressure.

Mataele then took centre stage, the 20-year-old wing in the right place to help himself to a nine-minute treble as the New Zealand Conference leaders surged 29-3 ahead at the end of a first half in which Seta Tamanivalu was yellow-carded for taking Teruya Goto out in the air.

The dominant Crusaders eased to a seventh win out of seven, with Peter Samu, George Bridge and Whetu Douglas adding further five-pointers to bring the outclassed Sunwolves back down to earth following their win over Bulls.

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AM 44 minutes ago
'Freelancer' Izaia Perese shows the need for true inclusivity in Australian rugby

That's Cron's job though. Australia has had one of the most penalised scrums in international rugby for a long time. Just look at the scrum win loss percentage and scrum penalties. That is your evidence. AA has been the starter during that period. Pretty simple analysis. That Australia has had a poor scrum for a long time is hardly news. If bell and thor are not on the field they are woeful. So you are just plain wrong. They have very little time for the lions so doing the same old things that dont work is not going to get them there.


Ainsley is better than our next best tighthead options and has been playing well at scrum time for Lyon in the most competitive comp in the world. Superstar player? No. But better than the next best options. So that is a good enough guide. The scrummaging in the Prem is pretty good too so there is Sio's proof. Same analysis for him. Certainly better in both cases than Super, where the brumbies had the worst win loss and scrum pen in Super. Who plays there? Ohh yes... And the level of scrummaging in Super is well below the URC, prem and France with the SA teams out.


Nongorr is truly woeful. He's 130kg and gets shoved about. That just should not be happening at that weight for a specialist prop who has always played rugby cf pone with leauge. He has had enough time to develop at 23. You'd be better off with Pone who is at least good around the field for the moment and sending Nongorr on exchange to France or England to see if they can improve him with better coaching as happened with Skelton and Meafou. He isn't going to develop in time in super if he has it at all.


Latu is a better scrummaging hooker than BPA and Nasser. and he's the best aussie player over the ball at ruck time. McReight's super jackling percentage hasnt converted to international level but latu consistently does it at heniken level, which is similar to test level in the big games. With good coaching at La Rochelle he's much improved though still has the odd shocker. He should start the November games.

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