Crusaders beat Blues in Auckland

Out of the last six Super Rugby matches between Auckland based Blues and the Christchurch based Crusaders the Blues have won just two.

Match detail

We are waiting for the kick off.

The Blues kick off and we are underway with the match. 

3.00: The Blues show early on that they will be doing the Crusaders no favours. The Blues win an early penalty , Ihaia West takes the kick and nails it. 

4.00: The Blues are playing with real enthusiasm. They press the Crusaders back into their 22 and the pressure wins them another penalty. 

5.00: West lines up the kick and nails it again. 

8.00: Owen Franks is penalised for an aggressive ruck clean out. 

11.00: The Crusaders win a scrum in their 22. Drummond kicks for touch and it goes out on the full. It is just not working for the Crusaders. so far. 

12.00: The Crusaders get the ball down into the Blues 22 and Dan Carter kicks for the corner. Nemani Nadolo jumps high and gets the ball, juggles it and then controls it and scores. Brilliant TRY!

14.00: Carter slots the conversion. Crusaders lead. 

17.00: The Crusaders are really starting to warm up. They get the ball into the Blues 22. Robbie Fruean goes over next to the posts but is held up. 

19.00; The Crusaders win the scrum and power over the line again but they are held up so there will be another scrum. 

20.00; The Crusaders win the scrum. They get the ball to Nadolo who is caught but the Crusaders get the ball to the line again. Penalty to the Crusaders again. 

21.00: The Crusaders win the scrum but this time Robbie Fruean knocks on. Blues scrum.  

23.00: The scrum is reset a couple of times. The Blues win the scrum but then they hand the ball to the Crusaders – literally and the Crusaders attack on the 5m line. The Crusaders lose the ball forward. The game is paused as Ofa Tu’ungafasi is down. He comes off. 

25.00: The Crusaders win a penalty. Carter nails the kick. 

28.00: Melani Nanai almost gets away for the Blues down the wing but he loses the ball. 

29.00: The Crusaders steal the ball from a line out. They get the ball into the Blues half but then at the breakdown the Blues knock on. 

30.00: The Crusaders win the scrum and Carter kicks for Nadolo outwide but this time the ball bounces badly for him and goes into touch.

33.00: The game is really opening up now. The Blues accidentally take the ball into touch. The Crusaders take the line out quickly and Owen Franks almost gets through but Luke Romano does and he goes over and scores. The TMO checks. Its a TRY! 

34.00: Carter adds the conversion from in front. 

36.00: The Crusaders concede a penalty from the scrum so the Blues kick for touch and set up a 5m line out. 

37.00: The Blues win the line out and drive the maul over the line. They are held up. 5m scrum. 

40.00: The siren sounds and the Blues kicks the ball into touch. Its half time. 

The half time score was Blues 6 Crusaders 17

Dan Carter kicks off and we are underway again. The Crusaders have brought on Andy Ellis for the second half. 

44.00: Scrums are eating up time in this half. No action just scrums being reset. 

45.00: The Crusaders win a scrum for the Blues front row angling in. Carter says he will kick for posts. Odd as the Crusaders need a bonus point win. 

46.00: Carter lines up the kick and nails it. Jamison Gibson-Park comes on for Jimmy Cowan. 

48.00: The Blues go through about 10 phases on attack before the Crusaders knock on. The Blues win the ball back and they kick upfield. Tom Taylor kicks it back. 

49.00: Sam Whitelock comes on for Luke Romano. Ben Franks is replaced by Nepo Laulala. 

50.00: Melani Nanai offloads to Brendon O’Connor and he almost gets through but passes the ball to Andy Ellis who dots the ball down behind the Crusaders line. Blues 5m scrum. 

51.00: The Blues get the ball to the Crusaders tryline but Sam Whitelock steals the ball and the Crusaders break out from their tryline. Robbie Fruean gets caught and offloads to Nafi Tuitavake who loses the ball. Fruean has injured himself so we wait while the medics tend to him. He comes off – he walks off but its a knee injury. 

53.00: George Moala breaks through the Crusaders but then passes the ball out to Nafi Tuitavake of the Crusaders. 

54.00: The Crusaders counter attack and then kick up-field and chase but there is a knock on. Blues scrum. 

56.00: The Crusaders win a scrum and they pass the ball to Nemani Nadolo. He gets them into the Blues 22 and the Crusaders keep the ball moving forward and they go over to score but are called back for obstruction. 

58.00; The Blues get trapped on their line. The Crusaders press them back over the tryline and the ball is dotted down. Crusaders 5m scrum.

60.00: The Crusaders scrum powers forward and goes over the line. Before they can get the ball down a penalty TRY is awarded.  

61.00: Carter adds the conversion. 

64.00: The Crusaders step up the pressure in the Blues 22. Richie McCaw is involved twice as the Crusaders go through the phases on attack. McCaw dives for the line but he is short. No try. 22 drop out

66.00: The Crusaders set up another 5m line out. The Crusaders drive over the line with a maul and Matt Todd scores the bonus point TRY! 

67.00: Carter slots the conversion. 

73.00: The Blues work the ball up to the Crusaders tryline. The Crusaders press them wide but they cut back in and go over. We go to the TMO to check. No try. 

74.00: The Blues spread the ball wide. George Moala sucks in several Crusaders and the ball gets out to Ben Lam who scores in the corner. TRY! 

75.00: Simon Hickey misses the conversion. 

79.00: The Crusaders have a scrum on the half way line. They run the ball to the Blues 22 but then lose the ball. The Blues kick it back to Carter who counter attacks. 

80.00: The siren sounds. The Crusaders play on. The Blues get an advantage. The Crusaders turn the ball over but get pushed into touch. 

The Crusaders have won. 

The full time score is Blues 11 (6) Crusaders 34 (17) 

Scorers

Blues
Tries – B.Lam
Pen – I.West 2
Con –
Drop –
Cards –

Crusaders
Tries – N.Nadolo, L.Romano, Penalty try, M.Todd
Pen – D,Carter 2
Con – D.,Carter 4
Drop –
Cards –

Match Officials
Referee: Chris Pollock
Assistant Ref 1:Ben O’Keeffe
Assistant Ref 2:Jamie Nutbrown
TMO : Ben Skeen

Teams

Blues

1. Sam Prattley , 2. James Parsons (c) , 3. Ofa Tu’ungafasi , 4. Will Lloyd , 5. Josh Bekhuis , 6. Joe Edwards , 7. Brendon O’Connor , 8. Airi Hunt , 9. Jimmy Cowan , 10. Ihaia West , 11. Melani Nanai , 12. George Moala , 13. Hamish Northcott , 14. Ben Lam , 15. Matt Vaega

Replacements : 16. Keven Mealamu , 17. Nic Mayhew , 18. Sione Mafileo , 19. Hayden Triggs , 20. Chris Vui , 21. Jamison Gibson-Park , 22. Simon Hickey , 23. Matt McGahan.

Crusaders

1 Wyatt Crockett , 2 Codie Taylor, 3 Owen Franks ,4 Luke Romano, 5 Dominic Bird ,6 Matt Todd ,7 Richie McCaw (c), 8 Jordan Taufua ,9 Mitchell Drummond ,10 Dan Carter ,11 Nemani Nadolo ,12 David Havili ,13 Robbie Fruean ,14 Nafi Tuitavake ,15 Tom Taylor

Replacements : 16 Ben Funnell ,17 Alex Hodgman,18 Nepo Laulala ,19 Sam Whitelock,20 Luke Whitelock, 21 Andy Ellis ,22 Ryan Crotty, 23 Kieron Fonotia