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Crusaders much too good for Cheetahs

Sat, 17 Apr 2010 11:42

Back at openside flank: Crusaders skipper Richie McCaw

The Crusaders scored seven tries to nil in beating the Cheetahs before 17 000 spectators in Christchurch on Saturday.

By half-time they already had their bonus point which took them to the top of the Super 14 log.

The home side was just too strong, too well organised and too skilful for the visitors and they had too many ideas. The Cheetahs plodded through phases; the Crusaders raced through them. The Cheetahs went sideways; the Crusaders ahead. Save only the line-outs the Crusaders dominated all phases of play.

Cheetahs are an endangered species but lots of people have put in lots of effort to keep them from extinction. The Cheetahs of Bloemfontein have been virtually extinct in this year's Super 14 and it is going to take a massive effort to keep them alive.

At the moment there is little that they do well. They are devoid of ideas and skill on attack and devoid of resolution on defence. The changes they made did not work, though there was one notable exception. Riaan Viljoen was not really a flyhalf, even though he had some good moments from broken play. Things were better when Bosman came on. The scrummaging was an embarrassment. It was better when Wiaan du Preez came on, but never ever have you seen a Cheetahs pack so outscrummed. For one thing they were too upright. They carried the ball too upright into the tackle, tried too often to tackle around the chest and were too upright at the tackle ruck, allowing the Crusaders to drive them away. The experiment - if it was an experiment and not just an aberration - of having WP Nel in the centre was not a success on attack or defence. In the second half he acted like a prop and things were better.

Two Cheetahs are worthy of commendation - scrumhalf Sarel Pretorius who is so much better than ponderous Tewis de Bruyn and Henry Daniller who was strong at fullback and was the one player who believed in counterattack.

The Crusaders won the scrums and the tackle/ruck, they tackled hard and efficiently, they exploited every Cheetah weakness and, when they went through phases, they always made progress. Their performance not perfect - too many handling errors for that - but it was certainly much too good for the Cheetahs.

It was a match of few stoppages - just 60 in all and only 14 line-outs but there were 25 scrums to dismay the Cheetahs.

The Cheetahs were promising first when Danwel Demas swerved around Sean Maitland and chipped by Colin Slade beat him to the touchdown. Later there was another opportunity on the other wing when Viljoen broke and Jongi Nokwe chipped. On attack the Crusaders did not chip but preferred to keep the ball in hand with lots of support.

The Crusaders' first try came from a Cheetahs' scrum. It was the first Cheetahs' scrum of the match and the Crusaders crunched them and won the ball. Kahn Fotuali'i when scooting off down the blind side and kept scooting with a little dummy on the way till he scored a try 50 metres later. 5-0 after 12 minutes.

The Cheetahs attacked and Wyatt Crockett went offside under his posts. Viljoen made it 5-3 after 18 minutes.

Several times in the early part of the game the Cheetahs hoofed the ball downfield. There were no chasers just a prodigal transfer of possession. From one of these the Crusaders counterattacked and suddenly the Cheetahs were in disarray. Waldrom handled three times till the ball went wide right to Ryan Crotty who scored. 12-3 after 27 minutes.

The Cheetahs went through phases till Pretorius kicked and the Crusaders cam roaring back. They bashed till Waldrom went over in Waltie Vermeulen's attempted tackle. 19-3 after 33 minutes. Three minutes later Bosman made it 19-6.

Daniel Bowden had a sharp break and the Crusaders looked likely to score till Pretorius saved a grubber kick into in-goal. In saving the lively scrumhalf conceded a five-metre scrum. The Crusaders simply shunted the Cheetahs back over their line and Waldrom flopped in the ball for the try. 26-6, a bonus point and half-time.

The Cheetahs were much better in the second half and in fact dominated territory without really making inroads into the Crusaders' defence.  The Richie McCaw won a turnover off Barry Geel and the Crusaders galloped off on the left till Maitland scored in the corner. 31-6 after 56 minutes.

The Crusaders bashed from a scrum and then, in general play, formed a maul which they drove over the line for a try by Ben Franks. 38-6 after 61 minutes.

Twice the Cheetahs had five-metre line-outs from penalties. The first time they lost the ball in yet another turnover. The second time was after the Crusaders had gone through many productive phases for a try at the posts by Zac Guildford. On this  second occasion, the Cheetahs mauled and went over the line but the television match official could find no reason to award a try. They attacked again from a five-metre scrum till Bosman lost the ball in a gap.

Man of the Match: The lively, energetic, effective Crusaders' scrum half Kahn Fotuali'i who just shades his opponent Sarel Pretorius who, to be fair, did not enjoy the Crusader's luxuries.

The Scorers:

For the Crusaders:
Tries: Fotuali'i, Crotty, Waldrom 2, Maitland, Ben Franks, Guildford
Cons: Slade 5

For the Cheetahs:
Pens: Viljoen, Bosman

Teams

Crusaders: 15 Colin Slade, 14 Jared Payne, 13 Tim Bateman, 12 Ryan Crotty, 11 Sean Maitland, 10 Daniel Bowden, 9 Kahn Fotuali'i, 8 Thomas Waldrom, 7 Richie McCaw (captain), 6 George Whitelock, 5 Sam Whitelock, 4 Chris Jack, 3 Ben Franks, 2 Ti'i Paulo, 1 Wyatt Crockett.
Replacements: 16 Daniel Perrin, 17 Owen Franks, 18 Brad Thorn, 19 Jonathan Poff, 20 Andy Ellis/Willi Heinz, 21 Tu Umaga-Marshall, 22 Zac Guildford.

Cheetahs: 15 Hennie Daniller, 14 Danwel Demas, 13 Corné Uys, 12 Barry Geel, 11 Jongi Nokwe, 10 Riaan Viljoen, 9 Sarel Pretorius, 8 Davon Raubenheimer, 7 Barend Pieterse, 6 Hendro Scholtz, 5 Waltie Vermeulen, 4 Izak van der Westhuizen, 3 WP Nel, 2 Adriaan Strauss (captain), 1 Coenie Oosthuizen.
Replacements: 16 Ryno Barnes, 17 Wian du Preez, 18 Nico Breedt, 19 Philip van der Walt, 20 Tewis de Bruyn, 21 Meyer Bosman, 22 Robert Ebersohn.

Referee: Jonathon White (New Zealand)
Assistant referees: Garratt Williamson (New Zealand), Josh Noonan (New Zealand)
TMO: Kane McBride (New Zealand)

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