Crusaders v Waratahs: Five takeaways as Fainga’anuku gamble pays off for All Blacks and ‘Saders while Will Skelton ‘successor’ costs ‘Tahs
Crusaders' star Leicester Fainga'anuku and an inset of Waratahs' lock Miles Amatosero
Following the Crusaders’ 35-20 win over the Waratahs to kickstart Super Rugby Pacific’s Super Round, here are our five takeaways from the game.
The top line
The Crusaders debuted their new home, the One NZ Stadium, with a stylish, hard-fought victory over the NSW Waratahs to strengthen their hold on a potential Super Rugby Pacific knockout spot.
A new venue but the same old Crusaders as Rob Penney’s charges ruthlessly took their opportunities, dominated up front and punished the Waratahs’ ill-discipline for a vital bonus-point win.
The Australians started the match the brighter of the two sides with rising star Sid Harvey dissecting the posts twice from the tee to go into a 6-0 lead but as we have seen time and time again, the Crusaders’ response was emphatic as Dallas McLeod etched his name into the history books, becoming the first try scorer at the new ground.
The Exeter Chiefs-bound back was left with an easy run over the line after some slick handling by his teammates and looked to have doubled his tally not too long after with a clear route to the whitewash but that was chalked off with his skipper, David Havili, running an obstructing line.
Down on the scoreboard and down a man after Miles Amatosero’s daft yellow card, the Waratahs replied in kind with a glorious try as Harvey latched onto a pinpoint cross kick from Jack Debreczeni.
But it was the Crusaders’ machine that had the final say of the half as Codie Taylor celebrated his 150th appearance with a five-pointer off the back of a driving maul.
While the Waratahs threatened to launch a comeback in the second half, they were left with too much of a deficit to overturn as the ‘Saders scored back-to-back tries during Ioane Moananu’s 10 minutes in the sin bin, with Leicester Fainga’anuku powering over from close range and McLeod grabbing his brace through a blinder of a try.
Teddy Wilson got one back for the visitors soon after Havili was yellow-carded for a high tackle, but when Macca Springer went through for the Crusaders’ fifth try, the result was only going one way.
Leicester Fainga’anuku flank verdict
Outside of the Crusaders’ debuting their new stadium, the main talking point for this match was the selection of Fainga’anuku at flank, with the commentary team noting that he became the first back to be named at flank in Super Rugby history.
It was a massive call from Penney considering the importance of a victory to remain in the running for the play-offs on the balance of Fainga’anuku’s performance, the head coach was duly rewarded for the gamble.
Hybrid players are becoming increasingly popular in the modern game with Rassie Erasmus repeatedly using Springboks centre Andre Esterhuizen as a flanker off the bench last year, and to great effect too. England have tinkered with number eight Ben Earl in the centres and have plans to do similar with Henry Pollock. France have also used forwards Sekou Macalou and Oscar Jegou in the backs.
Having enjoyed cameos in the back-row for RC Toulon, the prospect of Fainga’anuku doing so for the Crusaders was always going to be on the cards and while he had a slow start in the role, his influence on the outcome only grew as the game went on.
He conceded an early breakdown penalty but quickly recovered using his centre skills to carry in the wider channels and kept the ball alive with sharp offloads. He produced a classic flanker moment, charging off the side of the scrum and clattering into Andrew Kellaway, forcing a knock-on from the Waratahs back.
A powerhouse carry saw him take a pair of defenders with him over the line, while he made another hulking run that led to another try, and his handling was a real asset in attack.
His stats back up the eye test as he made the joint-most carries (16) in the game, gained a handy 39 metres, chipped in with nine tackles, completed two offloads, and beat three defenders.
On today’s evidence, he could be a serious weapon for Dave Rennie if the new All Blacks boss wishes to have a hybrid player akin to Esterhuizen.
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Crusaders had the ‘Tahs pack on skates
Another pleasing sight for Rennie would have been the performance of the Crusaders’ forward pack, who absolutely decimated the Waratahs up front.
Finlay Brewis and Fletcher Newell combined with milestone man Taylor up front and shifted the Waratahs’ scrum into uber reverse with just about every opportunity they had at the set-piece. In fact, the Australian outfit were rather fortunate they had a wily operator like Pete Samu at the back of the scrum, or it could have been far, far worse for the visiting team.
Their scrum dominance flowed into the lineout as they secured 100 per cent of their own throws, limited the Waratahs to a diabolical 64 per cent success rate, and racked up serious metreage through their maul.
Jeff Wilson rued the New Zealand teams’ accuracy and effectiveness in the lineouts earlier this week, but boy, there was none of that for the Crusaders today as they produced a lineout masterclass spearheaded by Dom Gardiner, who was ably assisted by Antonio Shalfoon and Tahlor Cahill.
The Crusaders’ brilliance up front created the opportunities out wide for the backs, and a complete attacking team performance is translated through their 22 metre entry conversion rate as the Crusaders averaged 4.3 points for their eight ventures into the Waratahs’ red zone. For comparison, the ‘Tahs averaged 1.5 points from their nine entries.
Discipline costs Waratahs
The Waratahs are far from the most ill-disciplined in Super Rugby Pacific this season, but one would not be remiss to believe that to be the case on today’s evidence, as Nic Berry’s arm shot into the air time and time again in the Crusaders’ favour.
It wasn’t just the sheer tally of penalties they conceded – 13 in total – it was the manner in which they received them and how the Crusaders capitalised.
The two sin-binning periods also didn’t help with Amatosero conceding a frankly daft penalty, cynically tackling Noah Hotham after the Crusaders half-back took a penalty quickly. Amatosero was duly sent to the sin bin and would undergo an HIA, which he failed. That ended a rather poor outing for the lock, who has been primed as a successor for Will Skelton, but he didn’t display any traits akin to the Wallabies powerhouse other than his imposing size. The Crusaders repeatedly managed to get under his skin; they stopped him dead when he carried to the line while he was decent on defence.
Then, with 48 minutes on the clock and the Waratahs defending inside their own 22, Dan McKellar opted to throw on his front-row replacements with Moananu taking over from Folau Fainga’a, who had a tidy shift. However, the former ‘Sader’s cameo was quickly interrupted as Berry reached into his pocket for a second time.
Similarly to Amatosero, Moananu was cynical in his actions and couldn’t resist the urge to snatch at the ball when the Crusaders were barely a metre from the ‘Tahs try line. It was an impulsive decision; he rolled the dice and paid the price.
The Waratahs were fortunate that Havili ran a clear obstructing line that denied McLeod, and they ruthlessly punished that error, scoring a try on the other end of the pitch, meaning that when Taylor scored on his milestone match, it meant that Amatosero’s sin-binning period ended seven points apiece. However, Moananu’s 10 minutes in the naughty chair resulted in a 14-point swing for the Crusaders.
All Blacks and Wallabies watch
The likes of Rennie, Joe Schmidt and Les Kiss will all be keeping a close eye on the Super Round action and after the first 80 minutes, the All Blacks boss will be the most pleased with what he has seen.
We’ve already gone into detail on the impact of Fainga’anuku, but he was certainly aided by the brilliance of his fellow back-rowers, Gardiner and Christian Lio-Willie.
Gardiner hardly ever gets a shout as an All Blacks bolter, but perhaps he needs to enter the conversation with his lineout excellence and the threat he poses in the trams. Meanwhile, Lio-Willie has become somewhat of a forgotten All Black but showed why he initially piqued Scott Robertson’s interest. He put in an abrasive, physical shift on the gain-line, in defence, and at the breakdown.
Havili put in a tidy shift in the centre despite his yellow card, and perhaps his versatility will be an asset once again for New Zealand under Rennie.
Young lock Cahill also put his hand with a strong performance but the real success story was the shifts Newell, Taylor and Brewis produced up front.
As for the Wallabies, the real positives were in the backline as Harvey looks to be a serious contender in the back-three despite the plethora of talented outside backs. He was accurate from the tee, which is just an added bonus, but he did his duties as a winger, as he competed superbly in the air, and took his opportunity to score well while showing off his pace and footwork too.
Max Jorgensen also enjoyed a fine outing from full-back, injecting his pace at key times and making the right decision more often than not, while Kellaway was his usual solid self on the right wing.
Charlie Gamble and Samu were standouts in the loose forwards and Matt Philip was solid in the second-row but McKellar and the Wallabies coaching team won’t be overly impressed with the performances from the starting front rowers, or scrum-half Jake Gordon.
