The Stats Don't Lie: Just how dominant the Crusaders were

Ryan Crotty was the top offloader in the game with five. Photo / Getty Images

Opinion

Tracey Nelson looks at the key statistics from the Crusaders thrashing of the Reds on Satutrday.

CRUSADERS v REDS (38-9)

The Crusaders are through to their 12th consecutive Super Rugby semi-final, and in beating the Reds maintained their perfect home play-off record which now stands at 15 wins from 15 play-offs.

This was a game won up front, with the Crusaders in commanding form at the breakdown winning 11 turnovers to one. They won five of those turnovers in the last quarter of the match, including two to Richie McCaw.

When it came to offloads in the tackle the Crusaders were well ahead making a total of 22 to four. Ryan Crotty was the top offloader in the game with five, although even the forwards got in on the act with Wyatt Crockett and Matt Todd both managing offloads in the lead up to Tom Marshall's try.

The Crusaders made 12 linebreaks to two, Tom Marshall made three while Crotty and Dan Carter made two each.

The Crusaders missed just 14 tackles in this match, with Sam Whitelock their top tackler with 15. He was closely followed by Matt Todd and Kieran Read who both made 14. The Reds missed 28 tackles.

Todd made the most ball carries for the Crusaders with nine, and made 55 metres in doing so. Zac Guildford made the most runs with the ball (12) and also made the most running metres of any player on the field with a total of 122.

While the lineouts were fairly even (both sides stole a throw off the other) the Crusaders had the edge in scrums winning turnover ball at the back of the Reds' scrum on two occasions.

The Crusaders made just six handling errors, half of them coming in the opening quarter of the game.

The only area of the game the Reds came out on top was the penalty count, conceding just six penalties while the Crusaders conceded 10.

It was the fifth time this season the Reds have been kept try-less. The other teams who managed this were the Brumbies, Force, Blues and Stormers.