A bumbling Canterbury Crusaders have been forced to wait another 24 hours to know if they will have a home Super 12 semifinal, after Tana Umaga inspired his Wellington Hurricanes to an upset 37-20 win yesterday.
In the final-round match-up between the second from the top and second from the bottom teams, Umaga was back to his best after an indifferent season as he put the sword into the Crusaders, already four times past winners of the prestigious southern hemisphere interprovincial rugby union championship.
The result handed the Waikato Chiefs a chance to overtake the Crusaders and seal a home semifinal today night if they beat competition leaders the ACT Brumbies, thereby relegating the Crusaders to third place.
The red-and-blacks found themselves out-muscled, out-tackled and out-witted by the Hurricanes where the explosive Umaga had little difficulty breaking the first line of defense, setting up two tries for left wing Brent Ward and scoring one himself with a 40 burst down the line.
Without experienced All Blacks Justin Marshall and Aaron Mauger, both injured last week, the Crusaders lacked penetration in the backs, and their forwards were robbed of powerhouse Chris Jack who was knocked out of the game in the first half by a borderline high shot from Jerry Collins.
The Crusaders opened the scoring in the second minute with a Daniel Carter penalty, but lost it for good two minutes later when David Holwell equalized for the Hurricanes.
With little riding on the result for them, the Hurricanes attacked at every opportunity and it paid off with them.
Standout hooker Andrew Hore scored two tries in the first half, the first after the Hurricanes stole a Crusaders lineout, and Umaga sent Ward away for his first try as the Hurricanes raced to a 22-3 lead before a solo Carter effort wide out narrowed the gap to 22-8 at the turn.
After Ward scored his second try soon after play resumed, the Crusaders came back with a try to prop Dave Hewett from a rolling maul, but it was there that the resistance ended.
The Crusaders' forwards struggled to match their opposites.
Umaga's try followed by another Holwell penalty had the Hurricanes up 37-15 with 25 minutes remaining.
When Crusaders coach Robbie substituted his trump card Richie McCaw with 11 minutes remaining, it was clear he accepted defeat was inevitable, and when halfback Jamie Nutbrown scored a consolation try in injury time, it was too little too late.
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