Crusaders coach Todd Blackadder warned his Super Rugby rivals his side can get even better after their 44-28 defeat of the Sharks at Twickenham on Sunday.
Dan Carter and league convert Sonny Bill Williams were the inspiration behind a devastating first half performance that put the New Zealanders 34-18 up at the break.
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In the first Super Rugby game played in the northern hemisphere, Carter scored 22 points including a try before limping off in the 62 minute and Williams showed European fans what they can expect in the World Cup displaying his full range of offloading and carrying skills.
Carter went off with a hamstring injury, but is expected to be fit for the Crusaders’ next game against the Bulls in a fortnight.
The Crusaders scored five tries to four from the Sharks for their fourth win of the campaign, and quelled a mini-revival from the South Africans in the second half when they came back from 10-34 down to reduce the gap to just nine points with half an hour left.
Blackadder said: “It was a fantastic first half but in the second half it was helter skelter rugby and I was very nervous watching as a coach.
“You can ease off mentally when you have game won and we didn’t have the urgency in the second half.
“I know what we are capable of and we can be better than we were in the second half. We need to keep working and get even better.”
Carter and Williams pulled the strings with Williams shining in only his fifth game of Super Rugby.
Blackadder added: “Carter was world class.
“Williams has adapted so well to the game – he has got the potential to be anything.
“He is a threat and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere near him defensively.”
“He has enormous potential. He has only had five games of Super Rugby so you wonder what more he is capable of. He is certainly a class act.
“When you watch him make a tackle he is back on his feet, attacking the ball, he is cleaning the breakdown, he is driving players through contact, he is kicking the ball.”
Sharks’ coach John Plumtree said: “That Crusaders side are the benchmark for this competition. They are devastating in midfield and if you turn over possession they are brutal.
“Defensively we were a bit naive in the first 20 minutes. They scored 15 pretty soft points and you can’t let a side of that calibre score tries like that. But I was proud of the way we came back at them. If we had scored again we would have been right into them.”
A crowd of 35,094 helped raise funds for the Christchurch earthquake relief effort and the Crusaders treated them to a scintillating display of running rugby in a first half in which they ran in four tries after the Sharks had got over the line first then second row Willem Alberts scored from short range.
A Williams offload and Carter inside ball set up Sean Maitland for a try and Williams was the provider again on 21 minutes when his break and pass put Carter over under the posts. Israel Dagg then rounded off a sweeping move and Carter’s touchline conversion put the Crusaders 27-10 up.
Carter built on the efforts of his forwards, who gave the Sharks a torrid time in the scrum, and Zac Guildford stretched their lead when he sidestepped Ryan Kankowski and evaded the tackle of Odwa Ndungane to put the Crusaders 24 points in front before the Sharks staged a comeback.
Flyhalf Jacques-Louis Potgieter ran through some soft tackling just before the break and further scores from Ndungane and Alistair Hargreaves gave them hope of pulling off a remarkable comeback win.
With Carter off after 63 minutes, and Williams lucky to escape a yellow card for a shoulder charge, the Crusaders put the game to bed with Maitland’s second touchdown in the 66th minute
Sonny Bill Williams was in a class of his own, those offloads in the tackles, back-handed passes, putting those next to him over the advantage line with ball in hand sublime.
The Sharks were nod bad by any stretch of the imagination, it was just that this League-convert outsmarted and outplayed them to cause havoc!
gbs @ 1
hmmm, i thought the sharks’ centres were shit!! no-one welcoming him to rugby union? jeez, he must be thinking “its nogal lekker playing against safricans”. 😯
..
but
yes, he had an excellent game … not as good as the commentators made him out to be though … he disappeared in the while the sharks kept ball in hand
but
yes, defences will have a headache with him around … especially with all the guys running off the ball!
Plumtree is a twit…the Crusaders the benchmark in the competition? Owing from that logic it probably means the Chiefs are a close second, because they also beat the Sharks, and wait the Hurricanes must be above the benchmark cause they beat the Crusaders…please man, excuses excuses excuses from a man whose SUPER TIGHT FIVE, got murdered on the day, the same way Jacques Louis Potgieter showed us why the Bulls didn’t try to retain him.
I will say it again!!
The greatest number 12 the world has seen.
He will change the game.
I am glad to see this in my lifetime of rugby, because people like him only come along very rarely.
4@ tight head:
Agree… and both you and me foretold what was going to happen last week already!
Witch NZ team do the Bulls miss? Hope it is the Crusaders. I did not see anything , was busy eating myself into a coma. Hell this is rightfully called a 5 star lodge. Starve yourself a week before anyone of you go to Kapama River Lodge.
Ask Blouste too , he stayed there for a month and since then he can not see his keyboard. 😆
Aggenee Super!
What is this – the running of the Bulls? Since when do the Bulls try and dodge an opponent? You need to take a tip from Meisiekind here – a Bull never dodges; dis net crashball, crashball all night long…. 😉
@ fender:
nee man fender ons sal hom wel kry in die semis, dan maak ons dit maar 4 nil in semis. Hey jy praat sheeeeet Bul go back to work
fender @ 7
lol
tighthead @ 4
gbs @ 5
wow!! thats quite an accolade for this guy!! the best we’ve ever seen? hmmm, not convinced of that yet!!
again
he disappeared twice in that game
1. when the sharks had ball in hand (to all the teams who still need to play them 😉 😉 )
2. when carter went off (i really thought that he was also replaced)
..
Flok TH en GBS, beste ooit?
Dis bietjie dik vir ‘n daalder, die Crusaders se enigste ernstige game tot dusver was teen die Sharks, en laat ons eerlik wees, ‘n Kruppel ou met polio kan OM J-LP kom. Die sharks het op average seker die oudste senters in die toernooi, na miskien die Chiefs, laat hy dit teen die Bulls, Stormers, Blues of so doen, dan kan ons weer praat. Hy en Carter het so goed gelyk want die Sharks se skakelpaar was so akkas…
@ The Saint:
Of course the Sharks centres are kak!!
Sonny Bill does this every week, no matter who they play!!
Sunny Bill should have been cared for the shoulder charge on Kankowski, he then did the same on 57 mins. How come he hasn’t been cited?
The Sharks scrum was shit. Both Smit and Jannie might just have played themselves out of the WC.
Hargreaves and Kankowski [neither of whom I rate] played very very well.
I’d like to see SBW against JDV and JF, or JDJ. I suspect he won’t have it that easy.
He’s class, no doubt, but for me Carter was the instigator of the win. he set everything up for SBW, he’s the real danger man. Back to his best on Sunday.
Graham Henry has to choose between Nonu, SBW, Smith and Fruean, who for me is class all the way. I’d be inclinde to play Carter, SBW and Fruean simply for the synergy in their play.
Having said all this, SBW is vulnerable in the way he carries the ball into contact. After sussing him out for a while I’m sure we’ll come up with a strategy to target his arms and get some knock ons.
I hope…..
11@ The Saint:
Dis juis die ding… ek en Tighthead het voorspel Sonny Bill Williams gaan doen wat hy gedoen het…. gaan kyk na laasweek so in die middel van die week se berigte waar ek en Tighthead oor hom praat.
Hy het presies gedoen wat ons daar gesê het hy gaan doen.
Hy is die senter in Wêreldrugby met die beste paar hande en verspreidingsvermoë… by verre…. en gaan kyk maar mooi, hy doen dit elke week.
Die Bulls senters gaan kakkas teen hom, so ook meeste spanne se senters… en hier’s die pluimpie… die span wie se senters die beste teen hom opweeg op verdediging, gaan die Stormers wees…
14@ Stormersboy:
Hoping you understand Afrikaans, because I have just addressed those issues as well.
10@ Ashley:
Of Course he was less prominent without ball in hand, that’s how you stop this machine of a man, take away ALL his possession!
GBS…I posted a couple of pics on FB.
I was trying to think whether he has impressed on defence too and maybe its because he was so impressive on attack that I didn’t notice his defensive abilities.
Of course, apart from the armless ‘tackle’ on Kanko which counts against him in terms of defensive ability, I believe.
Is he a complete centre or is it too early to judge?
gbs @ 15
i watched the game with the intent of especially watching him (as far as thats possible on tv)
as much as he shine with ball in hand, that much he disappears when ball possession disappears
but
i could have it wrong here … i watched on tv as all of you, and could only see what they showed me
but
i really believe he’s vulnerable without the ball
..
there was quite a few occassion where there has been extra tacklers in his area? question is: why? is that a weak point?
@ grootblousmile:
Haha ja boet, natuurlik verstaan ek. Hoe ken jy my mos? Ek is mos net ‘n halwe soutie 😉
Goeie opsomming, ek sien uit na beide heirdie naweek se ontmoeting met die Sharks (sodat ons onself kan meet) asook die ‘Saders by Nuweland, want as on nie vir hulle daar kan klop nie, kan ons nie die ware Jakob genoem word nie..
Ek vermoed dat ond voor sal moet konsentreer, as ons goeie balbesit kan kry dan is hulle kwesbaar.
Of leiwers ek hoop so….
🙂
gbs @ 15
😀 yes, while watching him yesterday, i thought that he might looooooooove an oppertunity to play against that midfield of yours … unless you guys start keeping possession, you’re gonna visit your own tryline quite a few times … and that goes for the stormpoppies too!!
19@ Stormersboy:
O ja, flok.. sorry, my kop is effe los vandag, te veel om aan te dink en om gelyk te doen die kant.
At least he won’t score any tries against the Lions.
We don’t play the Crusaders, and I doubt we’ll get to the play-offs.
btw
i see the bulls’ next few games are:
hurricanes
CRUSADERS
REDS
force
…
hmmmmm … gonna be tough! 😯
I think if we;ve learned anything this year it’s that the underdog is not always the underdog 🙂
Mor upsets this year already for me than the whole of last year.
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