Crusaders 45
Cheetahs 6
Last week, the Crusaders clawed their way past the Waratahs. It was one of the most intense, physical, test-match-like Super 14 matches and should be required viewing for Northern Hemisphere cynics who accuse the south's premier competition of being 'candy floss rugby'.
Let's not show them the tape of this
one.
Where last week's effort was a controlled, aggressive battle for possession and then more of the same to retain it, these two sides did not - as the current jargon has it - respect the football.
There were too many handling errors, misdirected kicks and turnovers. The Crusaders, playing many of their second-stringers, started like a team who wanted to move straight to the try-scoring bit, without first paying their prepatory dues. The Cheetahs looked like a team - even though they beat the Crusaders at home last year - who just wanted to get through this without being chopped up into little bits.
In that, they were their own worst enemies.
Kahn Fotuali'i, supposedly the No 2 halfback in the Crusaders franchise, is beginning to look rather more like the No 1. He had time - thanks to a disorganised and marshmallow defence - to go the wrong way from a scrum. He started right, changed his mind to left and galloped 50m as Cheetahs defenders watched him with some wonderment.
Momentum got him there and the touchdown confirmed Fotuali'i's growth this year. He may not always be the flashest passer in the country but he is a muscular and uplifting force defensively and his running has become a real weapon.
The scrum that he scuttled around to set up his own try had shunted the Cheetahs back alarmingly well and the Crusaders props, Wyatt Crockett and Ben Franks, happily put their opposites into reverse at most opportunities.
After another backwards scrum, the Cheetahs were forced into a kick. Good work by No 8 Thomas Waldrom, Crockett - fast making amends for that horror day against Italy last year - and Fotuali'i again saw the Crusaders spread the Cheetahs too thin again for second five-eighth Ryan Crotty to score.
Waldrom, always a handful, scored the third and the Crusaders, by halftime, had won the match and secured the bonus point when Waldrom scored his second from a pushover try from that dominant scrum - after which Cheetahs prop WP Nel must have figured his initials stood for "Well Punished".
But, as is so often the case when a game is won early, the winners lose their harmony at the same time as the opponents stiffen their defence and resolve.
The mistakes mounted and it was not until 16 minutes into the second half that the Crusaders scored again - and even then it was from a clear knock-on before winger Sean Maitland touched down from a turnover and counter-attack.
A few minutes later, after probes by first five-eighth Daniel Bowden and the highly efficient Crotty, the forwards drove prop Ben Franks over with what looked almost like a rolling maul. Replacement winger Zac Guildford scored after another Crusaders turnover and counter, with Bowden and lock Sam Whitelock showing off a nice line in offloads.
Coach Todd Blackadder will have been well pleased with the scrum and several of his second-stringers - notably Waldrom, Colin Slade and Bowden - looked good.
Strength in depth is money in the bank when heading off on overseas tour, as the Crusaders now are. However Blackadder might have preferred a tighter dress rehearsal for their overseas leg.
That will begin with the Force in Perth - a stubborn foe at home - before taking on the Stormers and Bulls in successive weeks in South Africa.
Crusaders 45 (K. Fotuali'i, R. Crotty, T. Waldrom 2, S. Maitland, B. Franks, Z. Guilford tries; C. Slade 5 con); Cheetahs 6 (R. Viljoen, M. Bosman pen). Halftime: 26-6.
