Champions up and running
The Crusaders made a winning start to their Super 14 title defence against the Waikato Chiefs.
Last Updated: 17/02/09 12:05pm
The Crusaders made a winning start to their Super 14 title defence on Saturday, beating local rivals Waikato Chiefs 19-13 at AMI Stadium.
So much for the Crusaders looking shaky without so many of last season's championship personnel. As it was, they scraped a victory in a game they should have had wrapped up by half-time, a messy match with messy rucks, messy handling and messy decision-making.
Worryingly, after such a good start, they also ended up clinging on for dear life at the end. Nevertheless it was an impressive opening, but there are more demanding questions to be answered by this side.
Adaptation
Todd Blackadder and his coaching staff have been wise enough not to try and emulate last year's squad blow-for-blow but to look to build on the strengths of the current crop.
Thomas Waldrom is not Mose Tuiali'i, for example, but the new-look team appreciated Waldrom's less predictable running just as ably and fed off it just as effectively.
Neither is Colin Slade Dan Carter, but again, the transition is seamless. When the Crusaders did score first it was as though Carter was playing: a deft left-footed grubber through from the new fly-half for Casey Laulala to pounce. Slade, as if to prove that he might have even more tricks than Carter, converted with his right peg for good measure.
That try was the culmination of an opening quarter hour of near complete domination from the home side, who soaked up the early bursts from Brendon Leonard - a super performance in adversity - and Sitiveni Sivivatu to march the ball downfield into the red zone. The only reason the Crusaders had not scored before was early-season rustiness.
The visitors got back into the game with a freak try after 20 minutes. Stephen Donald's kick was horribly sliced, but the bounce favoured Lelia Masaga, who found open space to run to the corner and offload to Richard Kahui.
Still the home side dominated but they could not find a finish. Final passes went to ground, kicks went a couple of yards too far, balls were lost in contact.
Reward
Eventually the Crusaders needed a leg-up from the Chiefs to get a suitable distance ahead and it came from a dropped ball in the Chiefs midfield which Bateman scooped up to run home shortly before half-time. It was 14-5 at the break, it really should have been double that.
The Chiefs opened the second-half with a penalty, courtesy of an offside at a scrum. they also began it a little more threatening than they had the first, with Leonard, held up over the line after 50 minutes, once again at the heart of all good attacks.
The home side weathered the storm though and launched a few dangerous raids of their own. Still the errors of finesse ruined the momentum - even Richie McCaw himself delayed a scoring pass just a moment too long and butchered an overlap. From that error, the Chiefs scored.
Sione Lauaki broke superbly, Leonard and Liam Messam carried the move on, the ball flew to the right side of the field and Masaga outpaced the cover to score. Donald just failed with the touchline conversion and it stayed 14-13 to the hosts.
That cued some heavy pressure from the visitors too, with the last 20 minutes belonging to the Chiefs. Sivivatu's kick ahead produced a five-metre scrum when Leon MacDonald was driven over his own line and the Chiefs were unlucky not to get the rub of the whistle at some subsequent rucks.
In the final moments, Laulala touched down for his second try after a brief spell of pressure on the Chiefs' line, and Slade's conversion bounced off the post.
