The Canterbury Crusaders yesterday continued their series of great escapes with a 33-24 comeback win over the Auckland Blues in their Super Rugby match in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Trailing 21-5 at halftime, the Crusaders’ forwards lifted their work rate and late tries by Mitch Hunt and Mitchell Drummond ensured the home side maintained their perfect start to the season.
The Crusaders have now conceded big leads in three successive matches, but roared home in all of them.
The Blues flew out of the blocks, with inside center George Moala scoring two tries in the first half.
Winger Matt Duffie was a live wire, setting up a number of attacking forays, while scrumhalf Augustine Pulu scored the second try half an hour into the game.
The Crusaders had their first try from winger Manasa Mataele in the 25th minute, but ramped up their game when loose forward Peter Samu crossed for their second 10 minutes into the second half.
Replacement prop Ben Funnell rumbled over at the back of a rolling maul six minutes later after the Blues finally collapsed under pressure from a string of penalties near their try line.
Blues flyhalf Piers Francis, who replaced demoted Ihaia West, missed a regulation penalty to give the Blues breathing space and the Crusaders duly capitalized.
After another rumble toward the line from their forwards, Hunt darted over near the right corner and converted his try to put the Crusaders in front in the 72nd minute.
Replacement scrumhalf Drummond scooped up the ball from a ruck, feigned a pass and leaped over the line in the last minute to wrap up the win.
In Melbourne, the Waikato Chiefs survived a huge scare from the lowly Melbourne Rebels to win 27-14 and stay top of the ladder after four rounds.
The winless Rebels were coming off a 71-6 thrashing at the hands of the Hurricanes in their last outing and were expected to pose little threat against the high-flying Chiefs.
However, the Chiefs were severely tested by the Rebels and only secured a hard-fought victory with two late tries.
The Rebels actually led at one stage in the second half after going into the break 7-3 down, but the high-caliber Chiefs replacements proved the difference.
The Rebels started the match with plenty of aggression and were evenly matched in the opening stages.
After both teams missed early penalty shots at goal, the Chiefs opened the scoring midway through the first half with lock Dominic Bird, who collected a loose ball close to the line and dived over.
Damian McKenzie added the extras to give the visitors a 7-0 lead, which soon became 7-3 following a Jackson Garden-Bachop penalty.
The Rebels took an unlikely 8-7 lead five minutes after the restart, when high-profile rugby league convert Marika Koroibete scored in the corner from a superb flat pass from Garden-Bachop.
A second Garden-Bachop penalty saw Melbourne go four points clear, but after the Chiefs held on against some relentless Rebels attack, they struck back when lock Brodie Retallick crashed over at the back of a rolling maul.
McKenzie’s conversion made it 14-11 to the Chiefs with 12 minutes remaining.
Two minutes later, Chiefs replacement Jonathan Faauli was penalized for a no-arms tackle and Garden-Bachop leveled proceedings at 14-14, but a McKenzie penalty put the visitors back in front only five minutes from full time, before late tries to Sam Cane and Shaun Stevenson saw the visitors home.
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