Missed tackles cost Chiefs dearly at Jade

One statistic would have the Chiefs coaching staff reaching for the aspirin as they assess what went wrong at Jade Stadium against the Crusaders.

The territory and possession numbers showed roughly a 50-50 split. But the missed tackles count was 13-3 against the Chiefs. That won't do against a half-decent team, let alone one with the killing instincts of the four-times Super 12 champions.

"That is the ball game," Chiefs coach Ian Foster admitted yesterday. "They were ruthless, we made mistakes, missed tackles and it cost us four tries. You can't compete doing that."

Coming after a first-round loss to the Waratahs, it puts the Chiefs on the back foot early in the competition.

There were some encouraging nuggets for Foster and his staff to take out of the match, but the key is grabbing opportunities when they present themselves.

Take away the opening 10 minutes and the first 15 in the second half, during which the Crusaders scored five of their seven tries - four of which involved missed tackles - and you'd have had a highly competitive game.

But that's just not rugby. Chiefs captain Jono Gibbes made the comment that "the funny thing is it really felt like we weren't that far away", after the match. You knew what he meant. Sort of.

In fact, the Crusaders for all their ability to capitalise when they smell blood, were far from the finished product on Saturday night. Some of their defensive work was sloppy and they had a lineout thrower who would never win at pin the tail on the donkey.

That said, the Chiefs did well at the lineouts, tall Sean Hohneck being an influential figure, and although they struggled at scrum time there were periods when they were able to stretch the Crusaders.

If there was one moment which epitomised the Chiefs' problems it was Rico Gear's try five minutes before the break, when he pinched the ball out of No 8 Steven Bates' hands as he charged down the left deep in Crusaders' territory.

Gear turned and sprinted 70m for a morale-sapping try. It came after the Chiefs had fought back from 17-6 down with a clever try to left wing Sailosi Tagicakibau and were pressing hard.

It was tough on Bates, who was among the hardest workers in the Chiefs pack. He got some payback a minute later when he got between two tacklers to score.

At 24-18 down at the interval - and both teams down to 14 men courtesy of yellow cards for Chiefs hooker Scott Linklater and Crusaders halfback Justin Marshall after an exchange of punches - Foster and co would have been entitled to be leaning forward in their seats in anticipation.

But the Crusaders handled the 14-man situation the better. Grant McQuoid and Byron Kelleher missed tackles on Ralph who put Scott Hamilton clear; Dan Carter ran an acute angle to his right to score between two tacklers, before Ralph started and finished a move which split the defence. 24-18 had become 43-18 and that was that.

Loki Crichton made some penetrating runs, Tagicakibau had his moments, but Kelleher had an uphill battle and some of the forwards were anonymous for long periods.

Foster is hoping centre Keith Lowen recovers from a slight hamstring tweak in time for Saturday's showdown with the Blues in Hamilton. Mark Ranby is sidelined with a groin strain and McQuoid goes into World Cup sevens camp today. No Lowen would mean some serious head-scratching to construct a good midfield pairing to face the Blues.

Marshall takes early lead in battle of halfbacks

In the battle of the halfbacks, Justin Marshall shaded his All Black rival Byron Kelleher at Jade Stadium.

Marshall made a flier, his quick tapped penalty and far-flung pass wide to the left set up Sam Broomhall's second Crusaders try in the seventh minute.

Kelleher was shoved off untidy early ball from the back of a Chiefs scrum and thereafter his game was largely about determination, perspiration and recovering from awkward situations. He missed a tackle on Caleb Ralph which led directly to one try and had few chances to show his incisive attacking edge.

Marshall put himself about effectively and had time for a punch-up with hooker Scott Linklater to earn himself 10 minutes in the sin bin.

For chunks of the match he could have pulled out the pipe and slippers behind a well-drilled, intelligent Crusaders pack.

So, if the Lions test jersey is to be between these two experienced, combative performers, first blood to Marshall.

However, the true test would have been if they'd had half a game each behind the Crusaders pack.