Taylor: 31 points for the Crusaders
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The Crusaders brought the Stormers' unbeaten run in this season's Super Rugby tournament to an end thanks to a well-earned 31-24 win in Christchurch on Saturday.
Fly-half Tom Taylor stole the show by contributing all of his side's points with a try, conversion and eight penalties in what was a flawless performance by the Crusaders young gun.
Even though the visitors outscored their hosts two tries to one, their discipline let them down in the end but deserved to snatch a losing bonus point in injury time.
It was always going to be a tough day at the office for the Stormers, after losing both their first-choice locks to injury in the opening 20 minutes of the match.
But they soldiered on and managed to stay within touching distance of the seven-time champions throughout the thrilling encounter - cutting the deficit down to just one point (22-21) with a quarter of the game to play, before that man Taylor sealed the deal with his faultless boot.
The result keeps the Stormers on top of the Super Rugby standings although the Chiefs could move ahead of them with a victory over the Cheetahs later in the round.
The Crusaders moved up to seventh place overall but remained fourth in their conference indicating how tight the New Zealand conference is currently.
There were errors in this match that will be rightly criticised, but there were also superlative exhibitions of skill, unrelenting showings of power and no small measure of guts.
Taylor scored the first try of the game, after straight running and quick hands saw the ball worked to Corey Flynn on the wing and his inside pass put Taylor over.
Taylor added the extras but the visitors hit back through a Peter Grant penalty and a Juan de Jongh try after the centre hacked on a spilled pass from Carter and won the footrace to score. Pietersen added the touchline conversion to level the scores (10-10).
The Crusaders survived Wyatt Crockett's 10 minutes in the bin for a high tackle on Siya Kolisi which deserved little more than a penalty, but still went into the half-time sheds 19-13 up through three more Taylor penalties while Pietersen kept his team in the hunt with a penalty of his own.
Taylor continued to keep the scoreboard ticking over, until the Stormers cut the gap when Dewaldt Duvenage's clever cross-kick was gathered by Bryan Habana who finished. Pietersen missed the conversion which would have put them ahead.
Disaster struck for the Stormers after losing Rynardt Elstadt - shifted to lock in the absence of Andries Bekker and Eben Etzebeth - to the bin for a similar offence to that of Crockett.
It was another dubious call by referee Chris Pollock, and the Stormers spent a crucial period of the game with only seven forwards on the park.
Through Taylor's unerring boot, the hosts scored nine points while Elstadt was on the sideline and at 31-21 the game was over.
Grant nailed a well-taken penalty well after the siren though to earn the visitors a losing bonus point they thoroughly deserved for their part in a magnificent game.
The scorers:
For Crusaders:
Try: Taylor
Con: Taylor
Pens: Taylor 8
For Stormers:
Tries: De Jongh, Habana
Con: Pietersen
Pens: Grant, Pietersen 2
Crusaders: 15 Israel Dagg, 14 Sean Maitland, 13 Robbie Fruean, 12 Dan Carter, 11 Zac Guildford, 10 Tom Taylor, 9 Andy Ellis, 8 Kieran Read (c), 7 Matt Todd, 6 George Whitelock, 5 Sam Whitelock, 4 Tom Donnelly, 3 Ben Franks, 2 Corey Flynn, 1 Wyatt Crockett.
Replacements: 16 Quentin MacDonald, 17 Owen Franks, 18 Luke Romano, 19 Luke Whitelock, 20 Willi Heinz, 21 Ryan Crotty, 22 Tom Marshall.
Stormers: 15 Joe Pietersen, 14 Gerhard van den Heever, 13 Juan de Jongh, 12 Jean de Villiers (c), 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Peter Grant, 9 Dewaldt Duvenage, 8 Duane Vermeulen, 7 Rynhardt Elstadt, 6 Siya Kolisi, 5 Andries Bekker, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Brok Harris, 2 Tiaan Liebenberg, 1 Steven Kitshoff.
Replacements: 16 Deon Fourie, 17 Frans Malherbe, 18 De Kock Steenkamp, 19 Nizaam Carr, 20 Louis Schreuder, 21 Burton Francis, 22 Gio Aplon/ JP du Plessis.
Referee: Chris Pollock (New Zealand)
Comments
Euskadi says...
Good result for the Crusaders, a pretty even match I thought could have gone either way. Stormers were unlucky to lose their locks but it only seemed to hurt their lineout toward the end of the match but that was due more to the throwing i think. Both yellow cards were unwarranted but evened each other out, the Stormers probably were hurt more than the Crusaders due to the timing of their yellow. Didnt expect a high scoring match considering the Stormers defence and given that both teams were trying to kick the leather off the ball it wasn't conducive to try scoring rugby. Fair result in the end, Tom Taylor had a great night from the tee
Posted 11:04 14th April 2012
zambokke says...
Yes! I've just won major bucks off my friends. I bet that one of our guys was guaranteed to be yellow carded if the game was close in the final quarter. I also bet that they would convert at least 6 penalties at the Crusaders lovely new stadium. Considering the penalty count, our missing players and early injuries, we did well. No worries - as our Aussie guys keep saying!!
Posted 11:03 14th April 2012
TheMascot says...
Crusaders looking like there building momentum nicely!
Posted 10:49 14th April 2012
rugbylover says...
8 penalties - NZ ref.
Do I hear from Saffaland?
Stormers should have said, "It wasn't we who cried 'eyes', Crusaders. It was the Bulls!"
Posted 10:36 14th April 2012
ABlack says...
Another young NZ ist five comes to the fore in a pressure game. Taylor was good value all round and produced the best kick in general play of any Crusader all game. The Stormers won the kicking duel outright, the Saders kicking was average.
The touch judge was an idiot cant remember his name
Posted 10:35 14th April 2012
melkdave says...
Well a hard fought game ,but at times it was like watching ping pong.Both teams i thought did a lot better when they kept the ball in hand Even though the coaches wont be happy at the amount of penalties given away.Didn't understand the yellow cards at all both where penalties yes but yellows not in my opinion, i guess the referee was just being consistant .Overall then a fairly decent game but not great
Posted 10:32 14th April 2012
olepete says...
Well done Crusaders, inspite of the efforts of the referee and (particularly) the commentators.
Posted 10:31 14th April 2012
philipjfry says...
Stormers gave away far too many penalties and while their hard running and competitiveness at the breakdown is commendable they (and most South African teams since Andre Joubert retired) lack a fullback who can counter attack and run from deep. The 'Saders put some poor kicks in that for eg. Robbie Robinson or Andre Taylor could have scored from. Just noticed that the Reds are third on the log but points would put them at 8th.
Posted 10:30 14th April 2012
Noodle says...
Pure class.
Posted 10:26 14th April 2012
bloemboy says...
Well played Saders, though very disappointing crowd booing a really good try and the Stormers kicks. Ref had an off night, though not partial to either side.
Posted 10:22 14th April 2012