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Sport | Rugby

Crusaders breeze past Highlanders

The Crusaders are the first team in Super Rugby to book their place in the semi finals, with a comfortable 38-14 win over the Highlanders tonight in Christchurch.

The game was evenly poised at halftime with the score at 17-14, but a yellow card to Highlanders flanker Liam Squire turned the game in the home side’s favour. Whetukamokamo Douglas and Michael Alaalatoa both scored thanks to the one-man advantage, and after Richie Mo’unga scored shortly after, the Crusaders simply tackled their way to victory.

It all seemed like the Highlanders were in with a shot after they scored the first try in the 17th minute, a slick move through the backs that saw a great offload by Rob Thompson open up space for Sio Tomkinson to dive over in the corner.

That woke the Crusaders up, with David Havili diving in under the posts and then Richie Mo’unga finishing off a brilliant counter attack not long after to put the Crusaders in the lead.

Teihorangi Walden then doubled the Highlanders’ score after some sustained pressure led to a five metre scrum, crossing after busting through an attempted tackle by Jack Goodhue.

While the Crusaders definitely played better in the second half, the same could not be said of the Highlanders, who fell to bits after Squire was binned for a reckless no-arms charge on Douglas. The Crusaders didn’t need the invitation to take the game away from the Highlanders, but they did so with the aforementioned two-try burst.

It was a sad end to the Super Rugby career of Ben Smith, who has played all of his 151 games with the Highlanders. He is also joined in the departure list by Luke Whitelock, Elliot Dixon and Tevita Li.

From an All Black perspective, the form of Kieran Read was encouraging with the test season looming. Mo’unga as well showed that he is still a very handy replacement for Beauden Barrett if the first choice first five goes down with injury.

The Crusaders will play the winner of the Hurricanes v Bulls match tomorrow night at Westpac Stadium in Wellington.

Crusaders 38 (R Mo’unga 2, D Havili, W Douglas, M Alaalatoa tries; Mo’unga 5 con, pen)

Highlanders 14 (S Tomkinson, T Walden tries; J Ioane 2 con)

HT: 17-14 Crusaders