Saders win Super farce
27 May 2006
The Crusaders claimed their sixth Super Rugby title when they beat the Hurricanes 19-12 in almost impossible conditions at Jade Stadium on Saturday. The home side led 6-3 at the break.
A thick blanket of fog turned the first Vodacom Super 14 final into a total farce, as two teams with sublime attacking skills were forced to put boot to ball on over 100 occasions.
So thick was the fog that Sky NZ had to make use of two TV commentators – one for each side of the field. Most of the spectators at the top of the grandstands opted to leave the ground in the first half and watch the remainder of the match on TV. The others saw the game only when play was right in front of them.
In the end, the final was decided by a Crusaders try midway through the second half. With the scores locked at 9-all, flyhalf Dan Carter switched with outside centre Casey Laulala, who crashed over next to the posts.
Carter missed his first penalty attempt of the night, but then succeeded with four penalties and a conversion, for a personal tally of 14 points. The Crusaders dominated territory (82%), mauled three times as much as the Hurricanes, and deserved to win the game.
The Hurricanes spent most of the match in their own 22 and the official match statistics reflected the dominance. The Crusaders were camped in the Canes 22 for 23 minutes, while the Canes spent one solitary minute in the home team 22. The Canes got their first lineout throw on 40 minutes and the lineout advantage favoured the Crusaders 21-5.
The possession was also a 60 to 40 percent affair and if the conditions had been simply reasonable the scoreboard may well have reflected this superiority. As it was, it seemed a struggle to see the players lined up next to each other.
And with Carter at flyhalf he was always going to dicate where the game would be played. Also, his control of the flow of the game meant it was never in doubt who was going to win.
“We knew it would be a grind, and it definitely wasn’t pretty,” said Crusaders captain Richie McCaw. “We kept things much tighter and played the game at their end of the paddock. In the end, our composure won it for us.”
Crusaders - Try: Casey Laulala. Conversion: Dan Carter. Penalties: Carter (4).
Hurricanes - Penalties: Piri Weepu, David Holwell, Jimmy Gopperth (2).
By Simon Borchardt
Key moments:
69min – Penalty Gopperth.
SADERS 19-12
68min – Carter kicks another penalty.
SADERS 19-9
61min- Laulala scores the game’s first try after a switch with Carter from a 5m scrum. Carter converts.
SADERS 16-9
59min – Saders pull it up and then take it wide. Gear is tackled into touch just before the tryline on the right-hand side.
57min – Carter launches an up and under that lands on the Canes line, the ball bounces loose but Weepu grounds it. Saders have knocked on though and Canes get the 5m scrum. Canes then knock it on and the Saders have a 5m scrum.
54min – Saders are penalised for offsides in midfield, 40m out from their tryline. Gopperth goes for goal … and makes no mistake.
LEVEL 9-9
50min – Gopperth on for Holwell.
45min – Leo’o on for Filipo, Thorne to lock.
45min – The Canes knock on the man ahead of him plays the ball and concedes the penalty. Carter will kick for goal … and over it goes.
SADERS 9-6
42min – MacDonald is nailed inside his half and concedes the penalty. Holwell kicks the three.
LEVEL 6-6
HALF-TIME
34min – MacDonald makes a linebreak – probably the first of the game – from which the Saders get a penalty. Carter makes no mistake.
SADERS 6-3
31min – The fog seems to have cleared a little. Just a little through.
30min – Saders win the line-out and bash it up to within inches of the tryline. They eventually get the penalty straight in front which Carter sends through the posts.
LEVEL 3-3
28min – Carter kicks down field, the Canes can’t see the ball and McDonald takes possession. Hamilton is stopped 5m short but seems to knock on. These conditions are now beyond a joke.
21min – Weepu is struggling with injury but seems to be OK.
20min – Umaga is penalised for offsides. Carter will be kicking into the thickest part of the fog … about 7m in from the left touchline … and the ball goes just wide of the right hand upright.
13min – The fog is now even thicker … it’s difficult to see what’s going on.
12min – Most of the game has been played inside Canes half, but they finally work their way into Saders territory and are awarded a penalty on the 10m line. Weepu will go for goal … and it’s over!
CANES 3-0
6min – Kaplan nails the Saders for an illegal turn at the scrum. Holwell can see the posts through the fog from here … but his penalty kick is just short. Must be difficult for the touch judges to see the ball too.
4min – Both teams are making use of the high ball in these conditions. Gear drops a kick from the Canes – we should see a lot of this today.
k/o – There is a heavy blanket of fog over Jade Stadium. While you can just see the players, you can’t see the crowd at all.
Teams:
CRUSADERS: 15 Leon MacDonald, 14 Rico Gear, 13 Casey Laulala, 12 Aaron Mauger, 11 Scott Hamilton, 10 Daniel Carter, 9 Kevin Senio, 8 Mose Tuiali’i, 7 Richie McCaw (c), 6 Reuben Thorne, 5 Ross Filipo, 4 Chris Jack, 3 Greg Somerville, 2 Corey Flynn, 1 Wyatt Crockett. Reserves: 16 Tone Kopelani, 17 Campbell Johnstone, 18 Johnny Leo’o, 19 Tanerau Latimer, 20 Stephen Brett, 21 Cameron McIntyre, 22 Caleb Ralph.
HURRICANES: 15 Isaia Toeava, 14 Lome Fa’atau, 13 Ma’a Nonu, 12 Tana Umaga, 11 Shannon Paku, 10 David Holwell, 9 Piri Weepu; 8 Rodney So’oialo (c), 7 Chris Masoe, 6 Jerry Collins, 5 Jason Eaton, 4 Paul Tito, 3 Neemia Tialata, 2 Andrew Hore, 1 John Schwalger. Reserves: 16 Luke Mahoney, 17 Joe McDonnell, 18 Luke Andrews, 19 Thomas Waldrom, 20 Brendan Haami, 21 Jimmy Gopperth, 22 Tamati Ellison.
Referee: Jonathan Kaplan (South Africa)
108 Comments
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28 May 2006, 00:37 am
Come on guys, let’s get a little perspective on the conditions of this game.
In the words of Deans, who is a born and bred Cantab, he has never played in, nor seen conditions like this for a rugby game in CHCH before.
Now I believe I was not around, or very young, for the famous underwater test versus Scotland, where good portions of the groung were under water.
Using the logic that some are using on this website, after that game, future rugby matches in NZ were going to be ruined because of these “extreme” conditions.
However, some 30 odd years later, we have not (from my memory) had a game that is rivalled that, which is why it is still recalled by many. Why? Because it stood out for its exceptional flavour. If it is was just the norm, it would hardly qualify as being any different from the rest and may just get lost in the fog (pun intended, I apologise) of NZ’s rugby history.
In saying all that, wouldn’t it be great to have a national stadium, such as what CSI (post #43) has already commented on. Surely we could have a national stadium like the principality of Wales (it does not necessarily have to be as large). Sure it is going to cost, but it would be well worth the investment considering the professional environment of rugby and its commercial, financial, and sociological significance for NZ. What we need is for an ex-rugby player to become Sports Minister, in some repsects like Jason Madden, who is Sport Minister for Victoria. When a person has this history, they are much more perceptive to what is needed.
On another thread I saw how much NZRU is going to shell out on players. It seems that Union is to continue to be a night sport in NZ (due to our timezones compared to the Northern Hemisphere/ and SA). If Tim Shadbolt can get an indoor velodrome in Invercargill, then surely we can get an indoor stadium in Auckland/Wellington/CHCH/or Dunedin. The problem is that we have what I call a hoarding mentality. Its like the person who will not go out and buy a new coat, because they have 3 in the closet, however, the 3 in the closet are all old and out-of-date. Nevertheless, the person keeps seeing 3 coats, and does not want to spend money on another coat, because they have 3 alreaady. Whenever you hear anyone talking about a new stadium, indoor or outdoor, they always talk about the stadium that we have got, instead of asking the question about what is the stadium that we need.
By the way, I would not be surprised to see the Saders in the same position in 2007. The only thing that may stop them may be if Henry keeps a large number of their players out. If they can win the year after losing Marshall, Merhtens, Maxwell, Broomhall, Hewitt, and Harding, how good will they be a year on.
28 May 2006, 01:36 am
Rev Jim & Pierre,
Still hurting is it.!
28 May 2006, 03:54 am
i enjoyed the match. tough luck that sky didnt have the brains to use a lower camera angle or for that matter use cameras on both sides of the field. just shows how **** their coverage actually is. what service do they provide.
as a player im glad the game went ahead. rugby is played in all conditions except torrential rain where drowning could happen. too bad for the spectators i say. the players would have mentally prepared and were ready to execute their gameplans. saders seemed more prepared though.
weepu ruined it for canes. his **** tackling technique got him KO, and then decided to kick everything he could. only for the last 10min did canes try and attack, which they should have done all game.
i thought kaplan got suckered into letting the saders determine the pace of the game. saders really slowed the rucks and scrums down. and not once did kaplan make an issue of it.
once again many ppl outside of chch are on the we hate mccaw wagon. he was masterful, but the **** he stirred on saturday will earn him a snotklap in test rugby from any nation not only us.
28 May 2006, 04:20 am
i thought they couldn’t get any lower with the side camera angle. head on you couldn’t see at all
28 May 2006, 04:31 am
Rawlinson a new AB!!
28 May 2006, 04:44 am
Tomatsa
I do not know how you could tell if McCaw was stirring as you say. Just because the Canes reacted to him does not necessarily mean that he is somehow bending the rules like Beckham. People are seriously asking if some of Canes have a personal grudge against him. While I don’t agree, the Canes players overreact and go out of their way to target him. Case in point is where Collins shoved his face into the ground when the ball was totally out of the vacinity. This affirms that McCaw has gotten inside their heads.
This situation is not different to what the Aussies did when they targeted Michael Jones. Because he was so fast, they use to try and hold him in the rucks and tie him up. In other words, they targeted him because he was so having such an impact. This is no different from McCaw. You are reasoning from effect to cause.
Say what you want about the referring, but McCaw has only given away a good number of penalties in the Canes round robin match (4 I think). Are all the referee’s incompetent?
In regards to the scrums. While I take your point about slowing down the scrums, this only happened late in the game, and the Saders scrum had snotted the Canes throughout the game.
Just remember when you say that other teams are going to “Snotklap” (?) him, they will be cutting their own throats. You focus on McCaw too much and you will be put off your game. If you do try and take him on, you will have to answer to Captain Collins (Jerry’s been named Captain for the Argentina test).
28 May 2006, 04:46 am
Sorry about the spelling of your name Tomsta
28 May 2006, 07:56 am
All Black Squad for Tests against Ireland
Jimmy Cowan Southland
Clarke Dermody Southland
Troy Flavell Auckland
Scott Hamilton Canterbury
Carl Hayman Otago
David Hill Waikato
Marty Holah Waikato
Andrew Hore Taranaki (Second Test only)
Doug Howlett Auckland
Jerome Kaino Auckland
Byron Kelleher Waikato
Casey Laulala Canterbury
Luke McAlister North Harbour
Richie McCaw Canterbury (Captain)
Aaron Mauger Canterbury
Keven Mealamu Auckland
Mils Muliaina Waikato
Craig Newby Otago
Ma’a Nonu Wellington
Anton Oliver Otago (First Test only)
Greg Rawlinson North Harbour
Joe Rokocoko Auckland
Rodney So’oialo Wellington
Neemia Tialata Wellington
Ali Williams Auckland
The starting XV for the Test match against Argentina is:
Leon MacDonald Canterbury
Rico Gear Tasman
Isaia Toeava Auckland
Sam Tuitupou Auckland
Sitiveni Sivivatu Waikato
Dan Carter Canterbury
Piri Weepu Wellington
Mose Tuiali’i Canterbury
Chris Masoe Wellington
Jerry Collins Wellington (Captain)
Chris Jack Canterbury
Jason Eaton Taranaki
Greg Somerville Canterbury
Anton Oliver Otago
Tony Woodcock North Harbour
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