The Canterbury Crusaders edged the Waikato Chiefs 16-12 in an intense Super Rugby Pacific final battle in Christchurch yesterday to claim their 15th title in 30 years of the Southern Hemisphere competition.
Hooker Codie Taylor scored a try and Rivez Reihana contributed 11 points from the kicking tee as the most dominant team in Super Rugby history extended their perfect home playoff record to 32 successive matches since 1998.
The Chiefs, who were looking for a first title since 2013, scored first-half tries through George Dyer and Shaun Stevenson, but were unable to register a point after the break and fell to defeat in the final for the third straight year.
Photo: AFP
The contest between two New Zealand heavyweights was predicted to be an arm-wrestle, and so it proved with big collisions, a ferocious battle at the breakdown and accurate tactical kicking.
Crusaders skipper David Havili was sent to the sin bin in the 11th minute for a high tackle on Emoni Narawa and the Chiefs cashed in when prop Dyer crashed over for a converted try.
The lead lasted until the 26th minute when All Black Taylor broke off maul on the 22 and raced down the touchline to open the scoring for the Crusaders.
Home flyhalf Reihana converted and kicked two penalties in six minutes around the half-hour mark to delight the sellout crowd and open up a 13-7 lead.
The Chiefs hit back just before the break when fullback Stevenson went over for a try in the corner, but Damian McKenzie failed to nail the conversion from wide out and the Crusaders retained a 13-12 lead at halftime.
The physicality was unrelenting in the second half, with McKenzie coming in for particular attention from the Crusaders and the slight flyhalf missing a long-range penalty which would have put the Chiefs ahead in the 55th minute.
The Chiefs then held up Christian Lio-Willie over the line to repel the Crusaders after 25 phases of attack to keep the match a one-point affair.
McKenzie was caught in possession and stripped of the ball under the posts in the 66th minute, but the Crusaders again came away without points as scrumhalf Noah Hotham was penalized for offside.
A dominant scrum earned the Crusaders a penalty seven minutes from time, and Reihana slotted home the kick to score the first points of the second half and give the home side enough of a cushion to get over the line.
The Crusaders have now won 13 full editions of Super Rugby, including three of the past four years, as well as two New Zealand-only versions played in 2020 and 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
NO HARD FEELINGS: Taiwan’s Lin Hsiang-ti and Indonesia’s Dhinda Amartya Pratiwi embraced after fighting to a tense and rare 30-29 final game in their Uber Cup match The Taiwanese men’s team on Wednesday fought back from the brink of elimination to defeat Denmark in Group C and advance to the quarter-finals of the Thomas Cup, while the women’s team were to face South Korea after press time last night in the Uber Cup quarter-finals in Horsens, Denmark. In the first match, Taiwan’s top shuttler Chou Tien-chen faced a familiar opponent in world No. 3 Anders Antonsen. It was their 16th head-to-head matchup, with the Dane taking his fourth victory in a row against former world No. 2 Chou, winning 21-14, 13-21, 21-15 in 1 hour, 22 minutes. The
Marta Kostyuk’s maiden WTA 1000 title in Madrid came on Saturday thanks to her power, poise and a pair of unexpected lucky shorts. The world No. 23 beat eighth-ranked Mirra Andreeva 6-3, 7-5 in under 90 minutes to secure the most prestigious trophy of her career, her third professional singles title and second in less than a month after Rouen. Yet as the 23-year-old Ukrainian posed for photographs at the Caja Magica, it was not just the silverware that caught the eye. Held alongside her team and her two dogs, Kostyuk showed off a piece of black men’s underwear, prompting
Throwing more than US$5 billion at a divisive new tour and walking away after five seasons does not look like good business, but LIV Golf was not all bad news for Saudi Arabia. Oil-funded LIV, which poached top stars and sent golf’s establishment into a tailspin, helped push the conservative kingdom into global view — one of its key aims, experts said. The exit, confirmed on Thursday after weeks of speculation, does not signal a flight of Saudi money from sport, even after the Middle East war that sparked Iranian attacks around the Gulf, they said. “Saudi Arabia is not
Anastasia Potapova on Wednesday turned tennis heartbreak into history by becoming the first lucky loser to reach a WTA 1000 semi-final with her thrilling 6-1, 6-7 (4/7), 6-3 victory over Karolina Pliskova at the Madrid Open, as Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei exited in the women’s doubles quarter-finals. The Russian-born Austrian, who lost in qualifying last week, has capitalized on her unexpected main draw entry and stunned former world No. 1 Pliskova in a roller-coaster clash despite squandering three match points. Potapova’s run has included impressive victories over former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko and world No. 2 Elena Rybakina. Asked if she had thought
RSS