Mauger headache for circus Cats
17 Mar 2006
A sublime midfield performance by Aaron Mauger kickstarted the Crusaders to a stuttering 43-15 win against the Cats, who threatened to pounce for 40 minutes and then played pussy to concede 31 points in the second half.
Frans Ludicrous promised that his side would turn their season around in Christchurch. They didn’t. Cats supporters just prayed that their side would play with commitment. They did.
Indeed, a half-time score of 12-12 was arguably Ludicrous and his side’s greatest achievement thus far in the Vodacom Super 14. Two tries apiece, the Saders scores both from first-phase back play and the Cats both from well orchestrated forward rumbles, had the unexpected question uneasily settle over Jade Stadium: could this, just could this, be the upset of the tournament?
The injection of Richie McCaw and Chris Jack in the 47th minute injected the impetus to ensure the question didn’t remain unanswered for long.
Jack, in particular, shored up a wobbly lineout and marshalled the tight five so that the quality ball that the star-studded backline had been starved of for the first 40 finally materialised.
With King Carter and Magician Mauger as first and second receivers, opposing Earl Rose and Doppies la Grange, good possession was always going to equate to good tries.
Mauger and Leon MacDonald both grabbed their second scores of the evening, and subs Jack and Andy Ellis dotted down in the final minutes to ensure the try count went from two-all to six-two – a fairer reflection of either side’s quality.
There is a temptation to wax lyrical about a Cats performance that was a 200% improvement on last week’s humiliation in Sydney. That would be misleading, because even a 200% improvement was nowhere near sufficient.
As a professional entity, commitment should be a given and not a bonus. Those who slunk from the field after giving their all deserve neither the back-slap or the commiserations. The salary cheque and match fees they will cash is sufficient compensation for what should be the bare minimum in Vodacom Super 14 rugby.
Commendations are reserved, however, for captain Wikus van Heerden. Committed does not fully describe his effort, as his physical presence around the park had a sustained and meaningful influence.
It is a pity that Bok duo Ricky Januarie and Jaque Fourie could not emulate their skipper. Januarie was good in the first 40 and Fourie very good, as both showed the opportunistic instinct charecteristic of their Bok play last year. They disppeared in the second half and the Cats tiny chances of pulling off a win with them.
It is not often that a coach can reflect on 43 points, including six tries, and still find reason for disappointment. Equally, it is not often that a side can take 43 points, including six tries and still find reason for optimism.
It is not a compliment, but a graphic illustration of just how bad things have got for South Africa’s perennial travelling circus.
SCORERS
Crusaders
Tries: Leon MacDonald 2, Aaron Mauger 2, Chris Jack and Andy Ellis
Cons: Dan Carter 5
Pen: Carter
Cats
Tries: Wikus van Heerden and KleinJan Tromp
Con: Earl Rose
Pen: Tiaan Snyman
THE MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
82 mins: Sublime work by Jack sees fellow sub Andy Ellis score the Saders sixth as they toy with the Cats in the second half. Carter converts. (Carter 6/7)
74 mins: A messy Cats lineout near their own line sees sub Chris Jack counter-ruck perfectly and stroll through to score. Carter converts. (Carter 5/6)
68 mins: Game over as the Saders score their fourth. It’s a second for MacDonald after the finest backline move of the game. (Carter 4/5)
62 mins: Cats not giving up. Strong forward play again wins a penalty shot. Tiaan Snyman is on the field and he steps up and knocks it over from in front. (Snyman 1/1)
50 mins: Great try Saders. Mauger gets with a wall in front of him, beautifully chips the defenders and gathers to score. Carter converts. (Carter 3/4)
47 mins: Richie McCaw and Chris Jack on for the Crusaders.
45 mins: A great kick from Carter sees the Saders win a lineout 6m out. The Cats scramble and hang on but concede bang in front. Carter takes the three. (Carter 2/3)
36 mins: Committed Cats attacks are finding headway. The breakdown is an area of strength for the Cats and the Saders concede a penalty contesting on the floor. Rose can hand the lead back to the Cats here, and he’s missed another. (Rose 1/4)
28 mins: Cats pack turn the Saders through 90 and win the feed. 22m out, and a good short side move sees Januarie burrowing within 10. The pack controls the ball well and a great charge by Tromp sees him score the Cats second. Rose hits the upright from the touchline. (Rose 1/3)
22 mins: Jorrie the legend Muller has the greatest chance for glory imaginable. Dan Carter’s forced to change direction, and throws a shocker of a pass. Muller is right in line for the intercept and a 70m canter home. Somehow the ball passes through his hands to Aaron Mauger, and he’s away. Carter converts from in front. (Carter 1/2)
16 mins: The lead is cut within five munutes. A very kickable penalty is turned down as the Saders seek the immediate answer. It’s a try from first phase as the Saders spread it down the line. It wasn’t anything special and they still score. Leon MacDonald scores it. Carter misses the conversion. (Carter 0/1)
12 mins: Cats draw first blood. 12 minutes of continued pressure finally results in points as a clever kick by Conrad Jantjes forces a 5m lineout. Great take by Tromp and drive by the pack sees captain Van Heerden over. Rose converts. (Rose 1/2)
7 mins: Wikus van Heerden opts for the lineout from a kickable penalty. They’re lucky to retain after hooker Delarey du Preez throws short, and the Saders knock on. Another 5m scrum for the Cats. They get within 30cm, and KleinJan Tromp knocks as he dives for the line.
5 mins: Cats win 5m scrum after Ricky Januarie reads a ruck perfectly and hacks it through from the base of the Saders forwards. Jaque Fourie is away and he puts the kick through. Leon MacDonald is forced to kick it dead. From the unstable scrum Gerhard Vosloo is prominent, and eventually the Saders concede the penalty.
2 mins: Greg Somerville concedes the penalty at the first scrum by scrumming in against tighthead Daniel Muller. Pretty easy chance for Earl Rose, and he hits the post. (Rose 0/1)
544 Comments
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17 Mar 2006, 14:09 pm
Yipeeee!
17 Mar 2006, 14:09 pm
KEO/IG/SIMON/CHRIS
What is the record?
17 Mar 2006, 14:10 pm
Dammit Rudebud…
17 Mar 2006, 14:10 pm
I mean Spank me!!!
17 Mar 2006, 14:10 pm
I’m so fed-up with SA teams not winning the S12/S14 – and handing out freebies to NZ and Oz teams every year. But it seems as if our administrators are happy and comfy with it. What will it take to actually win the competion? New thinking and courage at the top for starters. We handled to change-over to the new SA without all the negatives that were expected. Surely we can handle a Bulls-Lions S14 merger of sorts. As a Lions supporter I don’t care if the Bulls dominate the team and get all the games at Loftus. Just get give us a flippen team that will win consistently – like the Crusaders.
17 Mar 2006, 14:11 pm
Rude
I also noticed what he did, I think he hasn’t got the confidence of the other players, ie: “Jorrie was on his ouside” so rather kick & chase. If the first kick didnt hit the fullback then the try was on.
On the second kick: I really dont know why he kicked, he should have handed of the player, that the way he used to play.
17 Mar 2006, 14:11 pm
Spank
“Relegation are(english?) here to stay”, are you sure?
17 Mar 2006, 14:11 pm
Cats can’t win, wasn’t the 500 post… That was the last straw! Live is just not worth living…
17 Mar 2006, 14:11 pm
Bloemleeu/Kats,
ya i hear its got bad, but cant be that bad, why dont they clean up the surrounding area? Its a beautiful stadium.
Sharkgirl,
I am a sprightly 22. Come on, i thought everyone with musical taste liked “Dont break my heart, my achy breachy heart, I just dont think you’d understand…”. Profound lyrics, a catchy back-beat, and its ready made for Cats supporters.
17 Mar 2006, 14:14 pm
Cab
When was the last time u were at Ellis?
These day’s it’s soccer and concerts for the “under privileged”
17 Mar 2006, 14:15 pm
Bloem Leeu / Spank me
Think both of you is right. Perhaps loss of self confidence and no confidence in his outside/inside players.
Jacque Fourie is ‘n yster. Groot en sterk bliksem en moeilik om te tackle. Weet nie hoekom Ludeke hom staan en mors het op vleuel nie. Hy het in die eerste helfte dinge nogal moeilik gemaak vir die Crusaders.
17 Mar 2006, 14:15 pm
Cab
now I get depressed with that song…
17 Mar 2006, 14:15 pm
Rudebut, he’s loosing his confidence fast and that is bad for the Boks.
17 Mar 2006, 14:16 pm
Cab
“I’m a sprightly 22″
Whatever bru.
17 Mar 2006, 14:16 pm
HOBO
With all respect, we can not afford to keep on looking back at years passed and keep on selecting players only because they where good. (dewet, MJ, W Greef, Jorrie, J Cronje, BIG JOE, BOLLA, JANUS ETC we must look fwd
17 Mar 2006, 14:18 pm
Rudebud
Ek sal Fourie op loskakel speel met Esterhuizen vleuel. Ek het teen Fourie op skool gespeel, hy was ‘n loskakel en het craven week loskakel gespeel! Rose kan nie eens ordentlike lyn skoppe skop nie, kyk hoeveel keer het hy gedraai om na die naaste kant te skop en dan net 10-20 meter te wen.
17 Mar 2006, 14:19 pm
Watched a lions games when i was over last year. Seems to me that it often feels more empty that it is, cos even with a respectable turnout of 25 000 odd, doesn’t even fill a third of it.
i’m glad the underprivledged get to use it as well.
17 Mar 2006, 14:20 pm
Hobbo,
sorry my mistake, typo, should have been a “3″ before the “2″.
17 Mar 2006, 14:21 pm
Cab,
much has been done to clean the place but the rot spreads faster there than Jo’burg City Council, Metro Police, SAPS, Scorpions, NIA, CIA, Army, Air Force and Navy combined can clean the place.
17 Mar 2006, 14:21 pm
Katsnor / Bloemleeu / Spank me
Ek moet nou gaan. Lekker om met julle te praat. Goeie en interessante idee van die Bulle & Leeus. Ek spot maar so af en toe met die ander spanne maar bedoel niks lelik nie. Ek haat dit as ons spanne so week na week ons gatte sien teen die oorsese spanne en jaar na jaar laaste op die punteleer staan.
Ek hoop regtig die Cats kom reg op een of ander manier. Hulle verdien nie om te wees waar hulle nou is nie.
Cheers tot later !
17 Mar 2006, 14:21 pm
hobo
no i arent
17 Mar 2006, 14:22 pm
fair enough, just take an old beater to the ground that way no-one wants to steal your ride.
17 Mar 2006, 14:23 pm
Oh sorry, I forgot to mention the Medics.
17 Mar 2006, 14:24 pm
Cab i have to agree with BL, that is a depressing song for me as well.
I like the old stuff, just not billy’s!
Sprightly 22? Whatever!
17 Mar 2006, 14:24 pm
Spank
Agreed, just trying to show that Neil is a very good player you’re overlooking. And that Marius and De Wet just need to find form again. They’re not has beens, they’ve still got plenty of rugby in them.
Anyway, gotto go, cheers.
17 Mar 2006, 14:26 pm
Cheers Rudebut. Must go myself for a while. The rest of you – please continue and break the record wherever it stands. Grrrr will be very unhappy if he doesn’t get to post no 1000.
17 Mar 2006, 14:28 pm
sorry GRR
maybe next time
17 Mar 2006, 14:28 pm
Cab are you 23 or 32?
17 Mar 2006, 14:29 pm
Joining the Bulls and Cats is a great idea.
IE take the three players from the Ctas that are capable of playing fire the rest and add them to the bulls side.Play all games at Loftus, turn Ellis Park into some sort of Fortress for the UN (like in Black Hawk Down) and we have a win win situation lol
17 Mar 2006, 14:34 pm
The Jo’burg boys wont survive in the P-town atmosphere.
17 Mar 2006, 14:36 pm
shark,
actually not sure, its either 32 or 33, hell you know things are bad when you cant even remember your own age.
More importantly, lets see if the sharks can pull off an upset this weekend.
17 Mar 2006, 14:46 pm
they will!
17 Mar 2006, 15:02 pm
Hobbo,
What could Hobbo be an shortened version of?
17 Mar 2006, 15:51 pm
At least the Crusaders still have to play the Waratahs, Hurricanes, Brumbies and Bulls. Then we will know how strong they really are. The Highlanders were the only decent team they have beaten thus far. Oh and dont forget they still have to play the Stormers!
17 Mar 2006, 16:37 pm
Having watched part of both halves, I can’t believe that either Januarie or Fourie desrve their match fees, just about half. The only player on the field worth a damn was Wickus.
The fact that the ‘Saders should & did win should not detract from the absolute lack of professional commitment from the Cats. They were disgusting.
Ludicrous is not the answer & I can see clearly that the brains trust that select & buy players, bring them in from the feeder areas & get them into the Cats setup are morons of the higest quality.
With the ever increasing number of rugby shows, it’s time that Vodacom sponsored one where the fan base, critics & game lovers generally could expose this shambles. Throw in a few of the clubs & lesser lights that are supposed to provide a decent player base & you’ve got the makings of a soapie with all the responses crafted by franchise / union spin doctors.
17 Mar 2006, 17:13 pm
RedCard,
If you can survive in Jozie, you can survive anywhere!
More murders/deths than any other city in the world (this includes the cities where war has taken place)
17 Mar 2006, 17:42 pm
You build a team on certain existing foundations
Last season the coach was Chester and the ‘Boss’ was BvR, I would imagine it takes more than one Super 14 season to recover?
17 Mar 2006, 23:06 pm
Mmmmm 537 comments I’d say there are quite a few cat’s supporters hurting out they sorry guy’s maybe next time, oh as the coach would say this is the last game to build up for the next game yeah rite.
18 Mar 2006, 00:19 am
“…free drinks at my pad if the bullys take it by 20 or more…
Comment by Dingman : March 17, 2006 @ 1:15 pm ”
Now THAT was a very cheap round!
18 Mar 2006, 02:28 am
“Ek haat dit as ons spanne so week na week ons gatte sien teen die oorsese spanne en jaar na jaar laaste op die punteleer staan.”
It’s called “transformation”, swaer. Might as well get used to it. It doesn’t look like it is ever going to go away. If you are against transformation, you are considered to be a VERY bad person. Almost like a Nazi or a child-molester. NOT a good look.
18 Mar 2006, 08:05 am
The Tackler,
Unfortanetely transformation is part of the problem (but by no means the whole problem). Our government is satisfied with mediocrity as long as political ideologies are adhered to. It’s affecting our society at all levels. In a way it’s unfair to compete with other nations in sport when a team of 15 from SA must carry individuals put there by politics and not excellence.
18 Mar 2006, 10:52 am
Hmmmm
Hobbo is short for Hobson and it’s what some of my friends call me. Just like Tommo is short for Thompson.
18 Mar 2006, 16:01 pm
cab,
Billy Aids Virus?
Thats cape music….
19 Mar 2006, 04:22 am
“In a way it’s unfair to compete with other nations in sport when a team of 15 from SA must carry individuals put there by politics and not excellence.”
I agree 100%. But such is the fuzzy-headedness around the race issue in modern SA that someone who campaigns for total non-racial MERIT selection is castigated as being a “racist” !
Work that one out for yourself, if you can!
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