The Crusaders put yet another dent in the Waratahs’ finals hopes, taking out their Sunday afternoon clash 37-33 in front of a healthy crowd of 30,663. The Waratahs will be ruing some simple missed tackles in the backline that contributed to each of the visitors’ tries.
The locals battled amiably and played the most expansive game I have seen from them this year. The backline was given free rein and often delivered breaks and half-breaks. However, the Crusaders managed to keep scoring tries as they always have, and in the end the Tahs couldn’t keep up. There are plenty of positives to take away, but you can’t help the feeling that this season is slowly slipping away from the Tahs — if indeed it hasn’t gone already.
The game started slowly, but seemingly from nothing the Tahs scored through Afa Pakalani to take a seven point lead. The move was started by a break from Dave Dennis from the back of a lineout, and spread quickly to AAC who broke through some paper-thin Robbie Fruean defence and offloaded to Pakalani who went in in the corner. Fruean hit back just minutes later though, running a nice angled line to break the Tahs’ defence and run 40 metres to score under the sticks. This time the culprit in defence was the usually reliable Tom Carter.
The Tahs potted a penalty but just couldn’t get things going for most of the half. The Crusaders then struck thanks to yet another Freuan break and yet another missed tackle from Carter. This time Zac Guildford was the beneficiary, dotting down to put the Crusaders in front 14-10 with five minutes to go. Some promising play from McKibbin, Mumm and Barnes before the break saw the Tahs win a penalty next to the pegs. McKibbin potted the shot to send the teams to the sheds with the score at 14-13 to the visitors.
The second half started with a penalty goal to Crusaders pivot Tom Taylor, but the Tahs hit back quickly with a try to Cliffy Palu after some good lead-up work. McKibbin added the extras to put the Tahs back in front, 20-17. Once again the Crusaders hit straight back, with Dagg getting on the outside of Kingston to put Adam Whitelock over in the corner. The teams then traded penalties to take the score to 27-23, before some lax defence from Kingston and Carter saw Fruean slip down the blindside to score his second try of the day.
The home side then began to claw their way back, with a penalty to McKibbin bringing them within 10 with 15 to go. Taylor hit back though, to keep the Crusaders well in front and all hope looked lost for the Tahs. A try to Sarel Pretorius after the ball spilled out of a scrum injected some life with five to go, leaving the score at 37-33 to the Crusaders. That score would remain, with the Tahs unable to score the clincher.
If the last 15 years of Super Rugby have taught us anything, it is that you can’t give the Crusaders a half-chance to score, as they will take it every time. And it was the case again today. Too often the Tahs slipped off makeable tackles or forced the offload that just wasn’t on. They were the better team for much of the game but weren’t able to turn their superiority into four points. You can add this game to the growing list of ‘so close but so far’ games played by the Tahs in 2012.
For the home side I thought Berrick Barnes and AAC both had stellar games, their best for the year. TPN was once again solid, as was Cliff Palu and Brendan McKibbin. But their centres fell off way too many tackles, and their forwards lacked composure at key moments.
For the visitors it was all about the backline stars, with Freuan, Carter and Dagg all having crackers. Matt Todd was a standout in the pack, and Tom Taylor steered the side around with aplomb.
So once again it is back to the drawing board for the Tahs, who face the Brumbies next week in a clash that will go a long way to deciding the winner of the Aussie conference — though the Reds may still have something to say about that.
