A narrow escape for Cruise-aders

Force 23 Crusaders 23

Richie McCaw, with his characteristic straightness, said the Crusaders were lucky to get the draw. Better believe it - the Crusaders lost this match everywhere except the scoreboard and escaped, by the most slender of whiskers, the most famous upset in the history of Super rugby.

Crusaders coach Robbie Deans looked like he'd been force-fed a goanna, this was such an unpalatable evening. In a competition criticised for the predictability of results, this was a surprise of epic proportions.

Twice in the last minutes, the Force had tries disallowed to winger Haig Sare. Both, in another time and place, might have been awarded.

That the Crusaders were guilty of taking their opposition too lightly is beyond dispute - itself a surprise because the Crusaders had talked up the spectre of complacency. They even started with their trademark efficiency and clinical dispatch. The Force looked in for a long night of staring at the Crusaders heading back to halfway to await another kick-off.

Instead, after their opening blitz, the Crusaders became the Cruise-aders. They turned over ball, they dropped passes, their scrum was wonky, their lineout patchy, Daniel Carter missed goalkicks he would normally tuck away. They made more mistakes on this night than they have the entire season.

And all because of that little worm of a complacency virus which says - no matter how much the players hold otherwise - that "we are a better side than these guys; knock 'em over early and the night is ours".

But the night belonged to the Force, the force of their spirit and that of the 30,000 supporters who clammered and backed their side - still without a win but still attracting the sort of unrestrained support that the Blues, for example, would die for.

At the Force's opening game of the season, when they were beaten by the Brumbies, it was clear the Force had strong local support. It is difficult to remember another rugby team so heavily supported by so many fans wearing the team's merchandise - jerseys, hats, shirts, whatever. The Force looked a very limited side and the issue was whether the support would stay through the long run of losses for which the team seemed destined.

While the Force have a long way to go to be a real force, the ARU, by luck or design, have unearthed one of the finest sets of supporters anywhere in rugby. How many people would turn up to Eden Park if the Blues were set to take a 50-point hiding (the pick of most before this match) from the competition leaders? It is doubtful there would be 30,000.

The reality is, however, that the Crusaders will likely still win the Super 14, more than likely fuelled by horror memories of this evening. But, as the Force clawed their way back into the contest - it wasn't pretty, turnovers unlimited in fact - they clamped down on their illustrious opponents. Like burly second-five Scott Staniforth who took All Black Aaron Mauger out of the equation; like Force openside Matt Hodgson who gave tit for tat with a battered McCaw; like Wallaby lock Nathan Sharpe who played a fine hand, although young lock Kevin O'Neill worked tirelessly for the Crusaders, as did No 8 Mose Tuiali'i.

The scrum was an awful travesty of a Crusaders scrum, never happy while young prop Wyatt Crockett was on and only settling when Somerville arrived. The Crusaders' smoothness deserted them under pressure from the Force's sprawling defence. They fired sloppy passes and resorted to little, dinky kicks surrendering possession when they would normally keep the ball in hand.

The Force scored two tries to lead 20-8 at halftime. It took the Crusaders 68 minutes to come back when Leon MacDonald scuttled over after enormous pressure but Carter missed the conversion. But, with prop Gareth Hardy sin-binned for slowing down the ball, the Crusaders seemed poised to profit. A glorious grubber by Mauger saw Rico Gear swoop for the try to lock it up and, with six minutes to go, the rugby world expected the Crusaders to finish it off.

However, it was the Perth outfit who forced the issue. Sare was somehow adjudged to have gone into touch after a fine move left and right from yet another Crusaders turnover. Right on time, Sare seemed to have scored again but was hauled back for a Sharpe knock-on.

That was fair enough but there would have been many judges who would have awarded the first one.

Lucky, lucky Crusaders but thinking long term, this might have been a good result for the Super 14.

Western Force 23 (C. Shepherd, B. James tries; Shepherd 3 pens, 2 cons)
Crusaders 23 (M. Tuiali'i, L. MacDonald, R. Gear tries; D. Carter 2 pens, 1 con).