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Match Highlights - Mo'unga shines as clinical Crusaders reach Super Rugby final

Richie Mo’unga sparkled as the Crusaders blew the Hurricanes away to reach the Super Rugby final with a 30-12 victory at AMI Stadium on Saturday.

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The defending champions were relentless in Christchurch, overpowering their New Zealand rivals and showing great quality with ball in hand as well as magnificent defence to set up a showdown with the Lions or the Waratahs.

Fly-half Mo’unga gave another demonstration of his ingenuity, pulling the strings and scoring 15 points – including the first of four Crusaders tries – as his side stretched their unbeaten home play-off record to 20 matches.

George Bridge, David Havili and Braydon Ennor also went over in a dominant display from Scott Robertson’s side, who bossed the set-pieces and will be strong favourites to retain their title with home advantage next Saturday.

Julian Savea and Ben Lam touched down for the Hurricanes, but they were comfortably second best in Chris Boyd’s last match before taking over as Northampton Saints director of rugby.

The Crusaders have never lost a semi-final or final against the Hurricanes and they were behind 15 minutes in when Mo’unga threw a dummy and dotted down after a spell of sustained pressure.

Savea was awarded a try at the other end when he was adjudged to have grounded the ball reaching out under pressure in the corner, but Bridge stepped inside to put the holders back in front after more powerful work from the forwards.

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Two Mo’unga penalties in as many minutes just before half-time gave the Crusaders an 18-7 lead and Havili took a pass from Bryn Hall before slicing his way through to go over early in the second half after great work from Jack Goodhue.

Mo’unga showed his class again to get his head up and set up Ennor for Crusaders’ fourth five-pointer with a sublime cross-field kick.

Prolific wing Lam crossed for the Hurricanes right at the end, but that was scant consolation, Brad Shields stepping up to strike the post with a conversion attempt in his final match before joining Wasps.

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Nickers 33 minutes ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

I thought we made a lot of progress against that type of defence by the WC last year. Lots of direct running and punching holes rather than using width. Against that type of defence I think you have to be looking to kick on first phase when you have front foot ball which we did relatively successfully. We are playing a lot of rugby behind the gain line at the moment. They are looking for those little interchanges for soft shoulders and fast ball or off loads but it regularly turns into them battering away with slow ball and going backwards, then putting in a very rushed kick under huge pressure.


JB brought that dimension when he first moved into 12 a couple of years ago but he's definitely not been at his best this year. I don't know if it is because he is being asked to play a narrow role, or carrying a niggle or two, but he does not look confident to me. He had that clean break on the weekend and stood there like he was a prop who found himself in open space and didn't know what to do with the ball. He is still a good first phase ball carrier though, they use him a lot off the line out to set up fast clean ball, but I don't think anyone is particularly clear on what they are supposed to do at that point. He was used really successfully as a second playmaker last year but I don't think he's been at that role once this year. He is a triple threat player but playing a very 1 dimensional role at the moment. He and Reiko have been absolutely rock solid on defence which is why I don't think there will be too much experimentation or changes there.

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