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SUPER 14
Highlanders 6
Crusaders 0
It's official. The Crusaders, vintage 2009, do not have the authority and command of their illustrious ancestors. Not yet, anyway.
Part of the reason could well be the world's worst away jerseys. The Crusaders look like paid-up members of the Rose Petal Appreciation Society and links with the good old red-and-black jersey have been sent where the real Crusaders sent the Saracens.
Only a lunatic would write off the Crusaders at this stage, but when we got to 60 minutes in this match without the most successful side in Super rugby history having mounted an attack that might end in points, we commenced a-wonderin'.
Actually, no points were scored by anyone in the first hour. But that big red cross on those truly gruesome away jerseys was starting to look less a design element and more like crosshairs; a target.
The Crusaders still made most of the running against a Highlanders outfit stubborn in defence - threatening mostly from breakouts but who otherwise struggled to mount much of an attack themselves.
There was a big crowd in Dunedin - a welcome turnaround from some of the echo-friendly, cavernously empty Carisbrooks. It stirred the Highlander spirit, as did having influential halfback Jimmy Cowan back.
So did the sight of All Black captain Richie McCaw limping off to a knee bandage after an injury which will have the All Black selectors anxious. Speed freak winger Jared Payne also copped a knock and was replaced.
Kieran Read and Brad Thorn toiled manfully in the forwards as did Tim Bateman in the midfield. For the Highlanders, Cowan was in everything and their most dangerous moments involved fullback Israel Dagg while Hayden Triggs looks to be growing as an athletic lock and All Black flanker Adam Thompson had a busy, destructive match - but not as much as his partner-in-loose, Alando Soakai did.
Neither side could put together a fluid attack that didn't fizzle out, break down or which washed up on the shores of the opposing defence.
Finally, in the 67th minute, the Crusaders made the mistake which led to the first points - Brad Thorn penalised for a no-arms tackle and Highlanders first-five Daniel Bowden kicked the penalty. Points, actual points!
It provoked the Crusaders into action. A full-blooded assault at the start of the last 10 minutes was turned back by the Highlanders and, when winger Ben Smith scuttled clear and kicked high, McCaw's replacement, George Whitelock, was penalised and yellow-carded at the ruck as the Crusaders buckled.
Bowden chipped over the easy penalty and the Crusaders came back hard - but couldn't take their chances. Mistakes by halfback Andy Ellis, first five-eighths Colin Slade and fullback Stephen Brett choked the momentum they had built.
Then Slade found a way through the desperate Highlander defence with three minutes to go - until a Highlander hand tipped the vital pass. Two minutes to go, the Crusaders pressed until a jolting Thompson tackle won a vital turnover.
So it was a Highlanders victory to rate with Culloden. They love stitching up the Cantabrians.
The Crusaders haven't endured three losses in a row since, it seems, about 1095 which was when the real Crusades began - and their hopes of retaining their Super 14 title look about as likely to be fulfilled as the search for the Holy Grail.
Highlanders 6 (D. Bowden 2 pens) Crusaders 0. Halftime 0-0.
