adminThe Crusaders became the first team in Vodacom Super Rugby to cross the Indian Ocean this year and register a win, as they halted the Lions’ run at Ellis Park in Johannesburg with a workmanlike 28-7 victory. The visitors led from start to finish, but were helped by a plethora of mistakes by a Lions side so eager and desperate to run the ball, that they forgot all patience and paid for it in the process.
The Crusaders are hardly the side that won seven titles in their glory days, but they are still streetwise enough to know when to attack and when to be patient, waiting for the mistakes.
And on a cool night in Johannesburg the Lions gave them more than enough turnover ball, eventually paying for their bravado as they tried to go toe-to-toe with the New Zealand side.
Twenty one turnovers tells a story of a Lions team that had the bravado, had the attacking psyche, but chose their moments incorrectly during the game.
As the Crusaders pulled away at the end of the game – through two late tries that came off turnovers in the 22m area – the fans leaving the park were simply shaking their heads at what could have been if a little more patience had been employed.
In another Vodacom Super Rugby match, The Waratahs condemned the DHL Stormers to spend the week they will have off for their bye contemplating what it feels like to be bottom of the log as they won a largely forgettable game 22-11 at Newlands in Cape Town.
There have been positive developments off the field for the Stormers this week with the appointment of Gert Smal as director of rugby. But the long term view is different to the here and now, and right now the Stormers are in a hole, with the Waratahs game being their fifth successive defeat.
It is not so much the fact that they drop behind the Toyota Cheetahs to the foot of the table that made this game such a sobering one for Cape fans. Rather it was the reality that with this defeat disappeared the last small thread of pretence that things might not really be going that badly. — Supersport
Online Reporter