Hard work pays off for Crusaders

Editor

Crusaders boss Todd Blackadder credited his squad's "character, commitment and attitude" after their win over the Lions.

The seven-time champions made it two wins out of two in South Africa on Friday after scoring six tries at Ellis Park, including a hat-trick for Ryan Crotty.

Blackadder wasn't convinced by some of the scrum interpretations from referee Stuart Berry but he was thrilled by the qualities the Crusaders displayed in their approach.

"We've been pretty dominant there [in the scrum], we're probably looking for a little bit of consistency there," Blackadder told Stuff.

"When we were on the back foot we gave penalties away, it felt when we were (dominant) we didn't get the rewards for it. We've got a good scrum, we just didn't get any of the rewards for the hard work.

"The guys have worked hard and put a lot of preparation in. We knew these games were going to always going to be tough ones. You can't fault the character, the commitment and the attitude."

Credit also went from Blackadder to fly-half Richie Mo'unga, as the 21-year-old came back from a poor kicking display against the Sharks to land five conversions and a penalty in Johannesburg.

"This is Richie's first year, he's started every game, he's leading the team around the field," Mo'unga added.

"He's going to have a few ups and downs… it just shows he's certainly a tough individual who can step up under a little bit of pressure. He's pretty resilient isn't he?

"He hadn't done too much differently this week, he didn't over kick. It was probably more just recalibrating."