Bulls 0
Like a champion matador, the Crusaders made sure the Bulls never had a chance last night. The home side made a clean kill, Sonny Bill Williams the man who inserted the blade deepest.
The Bulls, not usually dumb beasts, were made to look ponderous, uncertain and hopelessly equipped. That the
Crusaders tore through them in the midfield and further wide was no surprise.
That area of the field was always going to be their most profitable, especially with Williams delivering another scarcely believable performance of poise and class.
But what will have shrunk the Bulls' confidence, made them feel less than worthy this morning, was the old-fashioned doing they took up front. The Crusaders had them everywhere - at the collision, in the tackle, at the breakdown, in the scrum (just about) and even, against the odds, at the lineout.
Brad Thorn, supposedly not an aerial forward, leaped in front of Victor Matfield early in the second half to steal the master's ball. So too did Chris Jack, displaying a new lease of locking life. It was symbolic of the dominance enjoyed by the Crusaders.
It was symbolic, too, of the complete player Thorn has become. His hunger was obvious, hitting the ball up as if he was still in the NRL. Then there was his tackling - still like he was in the NRL. What capped it was a spiral clearance punt that he chased after, hard enough to then bury Francois Hougaard.
The Crusaders have no apparent weakness - certainly not one the Bulls could find. The 27 will have hurt the Bulls. The zero will have hurt much more.
Everyone knew what to expect from the Bulls, but they had little chance to deviate from the script, and the ferocity of the Crusaders' defence was stunning. On several occasions the tackling was so precise and aggressive that Bulls' players coughed the ball on impact.
Williams was the leader there, looking like some high tech weapon conjured up by the Ministry of Defence. He refined his shoulder charge strategy to keep it within the bounds of legality and twice in the first half nearly cut Dewald Potgieter in half. The Bulls became a little edgy after seeing the kind of mood Williams was in and there was trepidation in much of their ball carrying.
Thehuge hits were just one part of the Williams offering. He scored the opening try when he crashed on to a flat pass cleverly delayed by Matt Berquist. He's a big man, is Williams, yet he can shift and the ground was eaten up surprisingly easily. The Bulls didn't appear to be queuing up to make the tackle - and who can blame them?
What was probably racing through the defenders' minds was the thought that if they got too near, Williams might pass to Robbie Fruean and he would be even less fun to tackle. The big centre made one searing break in the second half that deserved a better final pass.
In full flight, he was frightening and the Bulls backed off quickly. He delayed his pass too long, but the number of support runners the Crusaders had close to the ball said everything about their desire.
Israel Dagg popped up to score one try and make several telling incisions, as did both wings with Zac Guildford showing the composure and accuracy under the high ball that the Hurricanes would have killed for last week.
Without any mistakes to feed on, the Bulls didn't have a game plan. Nor were they able to pressure Berquist the way they would have liked.
The stand-in surpassed all expectations. He didn't flinch all night and his game management was excellent; so too his kicking out of hand. He also managed to keep the scoreboards ticking over - which left the Bulls 14 points behind at half-time.
"You imagine walking into Dan Carter's shoes," said Crusaders coach Todd Blackadder. "There was a lot of pressure there and I thought he [Berquist] was outstanding. We knew that he was a general, that he could run and organise a game and he did that tonight. He epitomised the character out there."
It made for a miserable night for the Bulls. They couldn't get anything going and their ball retention was awful. To not score is one thing. But never to have even looked like scoring ... that is another.
The fact kick-and-chase and bump-and-grind didn't work for the Bulls in Timaru shouldn't be seen as any kind of proof that this style of rugby won't work later in the year when employed by the Springboks.
Knock-out football in a World Cup is an all together different business again.
Crusaders 27 (S. Williams, I. Dagg, T. Marshall tries; M. Berquist 4 pens) Bulls 0.
