Crusaders back to winning ways
Defending Super Rugby champions the Crusaders recovered strongly from back-to-back defeats by recording a 33-14 triumph over the Bulls on Friday.
On the back of losses to the Hurricanes and the Highlanders over the past two weeks, the holders were back in business with a bonus-point success at a rain-soaked AMI Stadium.
Scott Barrett went over from a driving maul to give the hosts the lead after a quarter of an hour and, although the Crusaders lost Tim Perry to a yellow card for a high shot, they further stretched their advantage as Codie Taylor crossed in similar fashion to Barrett.
Travis Ismaiel’s fine individual score halved the deficit for the Bulls but the Crusaders led 21-7 at the break thanks to Jack Goodhue, who ploughed his way through a couple of defenders from close range.
Goodhue scythed through a gap for his second after the interval and although Marco van Staden got the Bulls back to within two scores, George Bridge put the result beyond all doubt with seven minutes remaining.
That’s fulltime here at AMI with a 33-14 win over the @BlueBullsRugby. Thanks to our amazing fans for showing up in this weather! You guys were awesome ?? #CRUvBUL #wewill #crusadeon ? @PhotosportNZ pic.twitter.com/V6TxFxSg2n
— BNZ Crusaders (@crusadersrugby) March 23, 2018
CRUSADERS 33 (Barrett, Taylor, Goodhue 2, Bridge tries, Hunt 4 cons) BULLS 14 (Ismael, van Staden tries, Pollard 2 cons) HT 21-7
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The weather was dreadful but the playing surface was great so there is no real excuse for such another poor standard of play from both sides. Dragons just the better team. But, what a shocking decision by the TMO not to award the Fifita try. This pretty much sums up Welsh rugby with poor teams and poor officials. The WRU have a lot of work to do and it needs to be done quickly to avoid rugby being lost to our future generations.
Go to commentsNo chance of Borthwick selecting any young talent. He announced his selection policy from the outset with naming a poor OF as Captain, retaining an equally poor Youngs and Vunipola brothers when there were many better EQP in the Premiership. SB revival of Leicester was based on SA muscle and a terrific Welsh flanker he has generally ignored young English talent.
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