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Six moments that swung the Super Rugby final

Crusaders final

The Crusaders 38-17 victory sealed back-to-back championships and completed a dominant season, officially bringing in the third dynasty in the franchise’s history.

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With the Lions heavy underdogs, they needed everything to go right to unsettle this clinical Crusaders side. Here are six defining moments that wrote the script for the Crusaders ninth title.

Lions early pressure unrewarded

 The Lions needed a fast start and early reward to build confidence that they could pull this upset off.

They almost had it when Ruan Combrinck sliced through in the early stages for a big line break. They were able to work their way down inside the Crusaders five but after 13 phases they knocked on, blowing a golden opportunity to get an early jump and start with a 7-0 lead.

They did open the scoring with a penalty in the 12th minute, but with the majority of possession and territory in the first half they will rue not being able to come away with more, especially in the first quarter when they had the run of play.

Jantjies brain fade

The Lions needed a flawless game from their Springbok playmaker Elton Jantjies to be a chance in this final. Things were going smoothly before an unraveling series of events after twenty minutes.

Already inside the Crusaders half, Jantjies overcooked a questionable bomb that was easily marked by Mo’unga inside the 22 with no pressure. He wasted no time and hoofing the ball back down the field while the Lions had no players back.

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Jantjies waited and waited for the ball to roll over the try-line and casually picked the ball up and dotted down inside the goal line, thinking of a 22 restart. Unfortunately he ended up giving the Crusaders a five-metre scrum as the ball never crossed the chalk.

It was exactly the kind of mental error the Lions couldn’t afford.

Mo’unga magic

Jantjies kicking game continually failed to create pressure against the Crusaders. Their bombing strategy seemed inspired by the Waratahs early season effort which helped them build an early 29-0 lead in that game. The key difference – the Lions don’t have the best jumper in the game, Israel Folau, like the Waratahs do.

Down 13-3 Jantjies tried another contested bomb from his own 35. The Lions kick chase over estimated the arrival time, allowing Richie Mo’unga to expertly time his jump with a perfect launch at top speed.

Mo’unga came down with the ball with momentum and found a crease to weave through the Lions staggered defence, putting on a lethal step on the cover tackle. He found support in Jack Goodhue, who was brought down inches short but they scored a phase later through fullback David Havili.

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The converted try stretched the Crusaders lead to 20-3 and had the Lions reeling with five minutes left in the first half.

Lions maul gets mauled

There was a sense of building intrigue when the Lions kicked to the corner to setup the first lineout maul inside the five.

The Lions knew what they were going to do. The Crusaders knew what the Lions were going to do. All that was left to see was whether it would work. Unfortunately for the Lions, they were stopped in their tracks multiple times by a world-class pack that had their best weapon disarmed and dismantled by the end of the first half.

Unbeknown to the visitors, the Crusaders had statistically the best goal line lineout maul defence of any team in the competition. An astounding 96.3% of opposition lineout maul drives failed to score a try against the Crusaders this season. Just one try had been conceded all year in this fashion.

A strategy that has had a 3% success rate against the defending champions continued to fail on the biggest stage. When the Crusaders drove the third lineout maul in a row backward, the Lions were left perplexed and had to resort to plan B.

Decision to kick for three down 23-13.

 A Cyle Brink try in the 52nd minute gave the Lions a glimmer of hope by cutting the Crusaders lead to 10 points. A rare missed tackle from Matt Todd allowed Brink to break free and scamped 20 metres to score unobstructured.

With the Lions clawing their way back into the contest, they earned a penalty in the roughly 40 metres out, hugging the left-hand touchline. An opportunity beckoned to kick for the corner again and perhaps play off the top of the lineout in search of another try.

Instead, the Lions opted for a long-range penalty kick through distance specialist Ruan Combrinck. He sprayed the kick wide left, giving the Crusaders a 22-metre restart which they successfully contested and won through Seta Tamanivalu.

A few minutes later they scored under the posts through replacement halfback Mitch Drummond to severely dent the Lions comeback hopes.

Havili’s quick lineout

The Crusaders continually threatened to pull away but the Lions were good enough to strike back each time to offer glimmers of a comeback.

A powerful Malcolm Marx try from short range with 14 minutes remaining gave the Lions a two-score deficit down 30-18.

As they had done all match, the Crusaders responded in emphatic fashion. A quick lineout by David Havili found George Bridge in the midfield. He evaded pressure and found some tired forwards in the defence, breaking through before linking with support.

Scott Barrett crashed over moments later for the definitive try, effectively sealing the match with a 37-18 lead.

 

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J
JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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