The Crusade goes on

The Crusaders booked themselves a home Super 14 final spot with a clinical 33-22 win over the Hurricanes in Christchurch.

Huge possessional and territorial superiority finally yielded a kiler try by Leon MacDonald with 28 minutes to go, despite brave defence and the occasional thrilling counter-attack by the visitors, in a match played at a furious pace.

The Crusaders tore into their opponents from the off, ensuring that the Hurricanes were forced to defend and feed off scraps and once Leon MacDonald had broken the line just before half-time, the game was as good as settled.

Robbie Deans wanted a response to last week's defeat against the Highlanders, and he got it. The only worry that might linger is just how long it took to convert the possession into points, but the visitors defended gamely.

After three minutes, the Hurricanes had the lead. Dan Carter took his time over a clearance kick and had it charged down by Zac Guildford. The teenager pounced on the rebound to score, but Weepu's conversion drifted to the right.

After that it was one-way traffic. The Crusaders swung the ball left and right, varying their play superbly, while the Hurricanes strung themselves across the field and tackled with admirable discipline. It stopped tries being scored, but Carter landed penalties for transgressions by Jason Eaton and Chris Masoe and put his team 6-5 in the lead after 16 minutes.

The Hurricanes did re-take the lead briefly, when a break-out of defence by Cory Jane yielded an offside penalty within Weepu's range. It made not one iota of difference to the shape of the game though, and Leon MacDonald scored his first try of the night two minutes before the break, after eight phases of possession had pulled the Hurricanes defenders from one side to another.

Weary

With the weary defence sucked in to the two sides of the field, MacDonald saw a gap through the middle and sliced through to go under the posts. Carter made it 13-8 at the break.

Briefly, the Hurricanes rallied at the start of the second half, but Richie McCaw and Kieran Read came into their own, forcing no less than five turnovers in the first ten minutes.

All Hurricanes momentum evaporated, and then some messy work by the back three at a kick gave the Crusaders possession near the line. Nine phases later, MacDonald burrowed over at the back of a ruck, agains under the posts. 20-8, and the game was up.

Then the Crusaders really did come into their own. Kade Poki broke four tackles on the right from the restart, and then the ball went left to Tim Bateman.

Back it cam right to MacDonald, who was tackled by a blatantly offside Masoe. It was almost yellow-card worthy give the field position, but perhaps referee Stuart Dickinson took pity on Masoe after the runaround the Hurricanes had been given.

Carter punished the trangression with three more points.

On and on went the domination, turnover after turnover for the Crusaders being punished with some excellent positional kicks, pinning the Hurricanes back in their own half.

Savour

Another turnover near the Hurricanes line resulted in a try by Read which Carter converted. Another excellent kick downfield by the self-same Carter gave the Crusaders a penalty, which Carter also converted to make it 33-8.

There were a couple of moments to savour right at the end for the visitors, with another charge down pounced on by Jeremy Thrush for a late try, and a scintillating break by Jane finished off by Tialata - and converted by Collins.

The result brings to an end the Hurricanes' season, while the Crusaders head to the final against the Waratahs next week with the aberration of last week well behind them.