Crusaders v Hurricanes Review

The Crusaders went down to the Hurricanes last Saturday evening in what was a highly entertaining clash, however the Crusaders seemed to go off the boil with the last ten minutes to play.

After squandering a 9 goal lead, The one point loss certainly has a wee questions being asked of the 4 time champions with the experienced All Blacks all coming under the microscope. Especially the usually strong finishers just couldn't manage to close out the game, with the Hurricanes pushing right until the very end.

The Crusaders discipline will need to improve going forward with 3 penalties in the final 10 mins of the first half gifted the Hurricanes a 12-7 lead.

Canterbury seemed to not have a lot of trouble finding the line with tries to Dan Carter, Corey Flynn and Israel Dagg saw the Crusaders going into the final 17 mins ahead by 28-19 and seemingly had the game sewn up.

The finger pointing has of course been directed at Adam Whitelock for throwing the pass that was intercepted by Alapati Leiua which lead to a try between the posts and eventually the game. However the game plan was lacking during the final ten minutes of play, when the ball should have been kept in hand and really push the forwards into winning a penalty.

Dan Carters continued record with drop goals certainly hasn't improved but then panic button shouldn't be pushed anytime soon. It seemed that perhaps the better option was to continue to build a couple of phases to try and entice the Canes forwards as there was potential to open up a gap in their defense. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Injuries to Tom Taylor and the continued rib injury to Luke Romano could unsettle the lineup further going into the Bulls game at home, however it will give a continued opportunity for Tyler Blyendaal at this level to push for a spot and to improve his game.

The positive from a Crusaders perspective is there was a definite improvement in their overall game play than the previous week against the Blues, but alot more needs to be shown for the Crusaders faithful to back their boys for another finals berth.

I am counting down until the Bulls game, lets hope that a strong Crusaders home crowd can give the boys a much needed boost of confidence.