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Chiefs end undefeated crusade
Duncan Johnstone, RugbyHeaven - New Zealand's home of Rugby news, coverage, video & pictures | April 18, 2008 - 7:29PM
Chiefs end undefeated crusade - rugbyheaven.com.au
Chiefs 18 Crusaders 5
The Chiefs announced themselves as serious semifinals contenders in this year's Super 14 as they ended the Crusaders' unbeaten run with a deserved victory in Hamilton on Friday night.
The Chiefs mixed their increasingly potent attack with some resolute defence to claim a three-tries-to-one 18-5 victory in this 10th round encounter.
With just one play-offs appearance in the previous 12 years of Super rugby the Chiefs fans have been suffering more than just a weather drought in their region.
But like the welcomed rain to the district earlier in the week, the Chiefs performance here suggests things are on the up.
This was their fourth consecutive win now as their campaign gathers serious momentum. They have jumped momentarily up to third and they look comfortable in those heady surroundings.
They host the Reds next weekend and then head to South Africa for three matches there to try to seal the deal.
For a city hosting the V8 extravaganza this weekend, things are off to a roaring start as the capacity crowd of 25,000 loved every minute of this victory.
Any thoughts that the Chiefs effectiveness may have been blunted by last week's bye quickly evaporated.
The simply picked up where they had left off in Canberra, with a hungry pack and backline that was putting together some crisp passing to constantly test the Crusaders.
Big Chiefs loose forwards Sione Lauaki and Liam Messam were fired up.
Playmaker Stephen Donald, operating off some swift work from halfback Brendon Leonard persistently sparked the Chiefs attacks.
And the Chiefs showed some control as well as their eagerness to counter-attack. Their kicking game was clever and accurate as they looked to get into the right areas of the park to really apply some pressure to the visitors.
Among all this was some good old fashioned defensive steel that helped keep the Crusaders scoreless for 46 minutes.
The Crusaders, struggling for composure in their backline particularly, had nothing to show for their first half endeavours where they trailed 0-18 at the break. They say they are a better second half team but despite having a ton of possession all they could come up with this week was one second-half try. Their proud run of eight wins is now at an end.
They managed to deny the Chiefs any second-half points but they simply couldn't haul in the home side who had too much hustle and bustle on the night.
There was plenty of feeling in this match as you'd expect, especially after the Chiefs had produced a similarly impressive performance to beat the Crusaders last year in Christchurch.
It as fair to say that on the night the Chiefs had the better of the many personal battles that made up this clash.
The Chiefs took advantage of Stephen Brett putting the kickoff into touch by attacking from the resulting scrum and nearly scoring. The Crusaders, under pressure conceded a penalty close to their posts and Stephen Donald landed the points.
The Crusaders had a good spell pressing for points but got nothing and the Chiefs struck back when they got down the attacking end. Sione Lauaki gave them some good go-forward ball and as they worked it left Donald got in two clever passes to eventually free Sitiveni Sivivatu for the try.
The Crusaders continued to get enough ball and territory but couldn't turn either into points.
Meanwhile just about every time the Chiefs got on attack they struck. Some Donald genius with a kick and regather allowed him to slip a pass to charging prop Simms Davison who fended off Caleb Ralph and burst 20m to the posts for a thrilling try on the half hour that gave the home side a 15-nil lead.
There was still time for Donald to confidently land a long range penalty to extend that lead at halftime.
The Crusaders, importantly for them, struck first in the second half when they turned over ball through some sloppy work at the back of a Chiefs ruck and Stephen Brett picked it up and took over to send Andy Ellis in for the try.
The Crusaders kept on attacking and the Chiefs kept on tackling.
The visitors' hopes of salvaging something from this took a severe blow when replacement loose forward Nasi Manu failed to force the ball when diving over the line.
From there the Chiefs managed to hold on.
They will be in a confident mood as they get set to host the Reds while the Crusaders head home knowing they will have to improve next week when their old rivals the Blues come to Christchurch on Friday night.
CHIEFS 18 (Sitiveni Sivivatu, Simms Davison tries; Stephen Donald 2 pen con) bt CRUSADERS 5 (Andrew Ellis try) at Waikato Stadium, Hamilton. Referee: Craig Joubert (RSA).
There was plenty of feeling in this match as you'd expect, especially after the Chiefs had produced a similarly impressive performance to beat the Crusaders last year in Christchurch.
It as fair to say that on the night the Chiefs had the better of the many personal battles that made up this clash.
The Chiefs took advantage of Stephen Brett putting the kickoff into touch by attacking from the resulting scrum and nearly scoring. The Crusaders, under pressure conceded a penalty close to their posts and Stephen Donald landed the points.
The Crusaders had a good spell pressing for points but got nothing and the Chiefs struck back when they got down the attacking end. Sione Lauaki gave them some good go-forward ball and as they worked it left Donald got in two clever passes to eventually free Sitiveni Sivivatu for the try.
The Crusaders continued to get enough ball and territory but couldn't turn either into points.
Meanwhile just about every time the Chiefs got on attack they struck. Some Donald genius with a kick and regather allowed him to slip a pass to charging prop Simms Davison who fended off Caleb Ralph and burst 20m to the posts for a thrilling try on the half hour that gave the home side a 15-nil lead.
There was still time for Donald to confidently land a long range penalty to extend that lead at halftime.
The Crusaders, importantly for them, struck first in the second half when they turned over ball through some sloppy work at the back of a Chiefs ruck and Stephen Brett picked it up and took over to send Andy Ellis in for the try.
The Crusaders kept on attacking and the Chiefs kept on tackling.
The visitors' hopes of salvaging something from this took a severe blow when replacement loose forward Nasi Manu failed to force the ball when diving over the line.
From there the Chiefs managed to hold on.
They will be in a confident mood as they get set to host the Reds while the Crusaders head home knowing they will have to improve next week when their old rivals the Blues come to Christchurch on Friday night.
CHIEFS 18 (Sitiveni Sivivatu, Simms Davison tries; Stephen Donald 2 pen con) bt CRUSADERS 5 (Andrew Ellis try) at Waikato Stadium, Hamilton. Referee: Craig Joubert (RSA).
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