A tumultuous Super Rugby season came to a
conclusion Saturday as the Lions and Crusaders met in the grand final at Ellis
Park. The top seeds from the Witwatersrand were on a fourteen-game winning
streak, albeit with some of those wins against teams of questionable quality,
and hoping to win their first title.
Their opponents, the seven-time champions
from Christchurch, have had a stellar season, dropping only two matches (to the
Hurricanes and to the British and Irish Lions). But a win here would perhaps be
the sweetest of them all, being their first Super title since the 2011
Christchurch earthquake.
The Lions’ livewire fly-half Elton Jantjies
tried to insert himself onto the scoresheet first with a missed drop goal attempt
in the fourth minute. But his team conceded two tries before a quarter of an
hour had passed: one an eighty-metre run from a ruck turnover and the other the
culmination of a passing movement which rolled through an insipid Lions defence.
The visitors led 12-0 and could have made
it more if Israel Dagg hadn’t spilled the ball at the last hurdle. The sides
traded 50m+ penalty goal attempts, Jantjies converting his to make it 12-3.
Dominating possession with 57% of the ball,
the Lions had a passing movement broken up by a deliberate knock-on, but came
up with nothing after eschewing the easy three points. Things got worse for the
hosts two minutes from the break when flanker Kwagga Smith was sent off after
his head connected with David Havili’s behind while said Crusader fullback was
mid-air. An unrelated penalty after the expiration of forty minutes put i biancorossi up 15-3 going into
half-time.
The Crusaders took swift advantage of the
power play: a try between the posts and a penalty for illegal scrummaging and
they were ahead 25-3. It was only now that the men from the veldt began throwing everything at their
tormentors, and the introduction of replacement scrum-half Faf de Klerk in the 62nd
minute would change the tenor of the contest.
De Klerk, with his flapping blond hair
reminiscent of peak Warwick Capper, had a noticeable impact on his team and
hooker Malcolm Marx was over for a try within two minutes. Five minutes later,
the Lions got within metres of another try but Sylvian Mahuza lost the ball
forward, but a try between the posts to replacement prop Corné Fourie in the 73rd
minute made the scoreline 25-17, as the Crusaders struggled to hold on in the
face on the onslaught.
The men in red continued to throw the
kitchen sink at the seven-time champions, and when the Crusaders were awarded a
very kickable penalty with twenty seconds left, an exhausted Richie Mo’unga
just booted the ball into touch. They had hung on, but only just.
Lions 17 (tries: Marx 64’; Fourie
73’; conversions: Jantjies 2/2; penalty goals: Jantjies 1/1; drop goals:
Jantijies 0/1) – Crusaders 25 (tries: Tamanivalu 8’, Goodhue 12’, Read
43’; conversions: Mo’unga 2/3; penalty goals: Havili 0/1, Mo’unga 2/2)
