Rampant Crusaders heap more misery on Chiefs

CHRISTCHURCH: The Canterbury Crusaders continued their domination of Super Rugby Aotearoa on Saturday as they inflicted an unwanted title on a hapless Waikato Chiefs with a 39-17 victory in Christchurch.

The six-tries-to-one, bonus-point win, kept the unbeaten Crusaders at the top of the ladder with their third win from as many matches. But the Chiefs continued a losing streak that began last year to equal the record 11 consecutive defeats by a New Zealand Super side held by the 2012-13 Otago Highlanders.

The determination of the Chiefs to avoid another loss catapulted them to an early 10-point lead before they surrendered 39 unanswered points. After slipping behind 11-10 they twice won turnover ball from a rampant Crusaders pack in the run-up to half-time, but the game finally slipped away from them with a disputed penalty try soon after the resumption.

Crusaders captain Scott Barrett put the secret to his side’s success down to their desire to run the ball. “The easy thing is to kick it but we’ve seen teams holding the ball, building pressure more often than not come out on top so we’re looking to build phases, build pressure and hopefully points,” he said.

The Chiefs need to beat the Wellington Hurricanes next week to avoid holding the losing record outright, and captain Brad Weber voiced confidence they could do that.

“Never once in that game did anyone drop a lip or think we were out of it,” he said. “The belief was always there and jeez we do a lot of good things in 80 minutes and we’ve just got to put more and more of them together and we’ll get a result.”

Damian McKenzie contributed all of the Chiefs’ early points with a converted try and a penalty. The Crusaders struck back when utility David Havili set up Leicester Fainga’anuku who scored in acrobatic fashion in the corner in the midst of a McKenzie tackle.