Hurricanes storm to victory
The Hurricanes produced their best performance of the season as they blew away the Crusaders 30-24 in Christchurch.
Last Updated: 28/02/09 10:47am
The Hurricanes produced their best performance of the season as they blew away the Crusaders 30-24 in Christchurch.
The Crusaders, the defending champions, have built up an impressive record at home in Super 14 - winning 82 per cent of their matches.
However the Hurricans dominated territory and possession - with only a late rally from the hosts earning them two bonus points.
The Crusaders crossed for four tries to the Hurricanes' three, however the boot of fly-half Piri Weepu saw the visitors home.
Weepu scored 15 points as a stand-in fly-half, landing three penalties and three conversions for 100 per cent record.
Zac Guilford, Albie Mathewson and Ma'a Nonu had scored tries for the Hurricanes as the visitors roared into a 30-12 lead before Crusaders came storming back.
Sin-binned
Jarrod Payne and Thomas Waldrom crossed late on to add to earlier tries from Casey Laulala and Brad Thorn, but it was too little too late.
The match saw both skippers sin-binned with Richie McCaw spending 10 minutes on the sidelines in the first half and Rodney So'oialo ending the game there after being shown the yellow card after 77 minutes.
However despite his late indiscretion So'oialo was delighted with the way his side played.
"This is a great win for us," So'oialo said. "It's always hard to beat the Crusaders wherever you play them, doubly hard down here.
"We had the tactics to break them if we made the passes stick. We showed tonight what we can do if we do the little things well."
The Crusaders were not helped by the fact Colin Slade and Stephen Brett managed to land only two goals from six attempts between them.
And McCaw admitted his side's slow start had cost them.
"We let it get away from us in the first half," McCaw said. "They got momentum and it took us a while to get into the game. Maybe it was too late."
