Crusaders vs Hurricanes

How about Brad Shields? He's 112kg and plays even heavier. That penalty he copped in the first half was promising; he just needs to add a little polish to his aggression.

Really excited about him as an ABs prospect.

I heard Sean Maitland (Sader's fullback) on radio on sunday, thought he said there was no time, reckons Bleyendell can kick from that distance anyway. Actually with radio I had a bit of a laugh to wife, was listening to NZ talkback on a Tablet, do it quite often on a sunday, and come to conclusion us Kiwis must be pretty keen on rugby, there were calls from everyone from young fellas to old ladies ringing in, all to discuss the Cane's/Saders game, I think we got a rugby problem, and may long it continue

They definitely had time to go up the line. But they probably should have done that from the one a few minutes earlier when they got a pen out wide and Taylor missed it. Normally in such a tight game taking the points on offer is a hard and fast rule. But when your kicker is in such poor form with the boot, as Taylor was, then going up the line is probably the better option. Then maybe they could have worked a pen that was more kickable.

For the last pen Blyendaal just didn't have the distance to kick it from there but by that stage they were just looking for that miracle moment to snatch the victory.

Taylor was in poor form with the boot? Wasn't he like 4 from 5 at that point. And the one he missed came off the cross-bar.

The kick was an idiotic decision, rated at 20% of making it imo.

What was Beale's % against SA in Bloemfontein? Hindsight is a wonderful thing, you wouldn't of heard a peep if it went over.

So Bloemfontein is Christchurch?

He hit the crossbar in the first half then dragged one horribly on about 45 mins and the miss from out wide wasn't even close. That last one put him at 6 out of 9 which is a poor performance with the boot. Not a stinker but enough that you wouldn't have backed him to have gotten the one out wide.

They took too much time deciding what to do and apparently only had time for the kick I thought.

Btw, Crusaders without DC means a broken axle for their backs. Cause Crotty is pedestrian and DC can make him look good, wheres Taylor and Bleything can't.

I reckon they'll spend up for a 12. Nonu probably.

Nothing to say, it was the wrong call. Richie's generally pretty good with the close game decisions, but he shanked that one.

Nah, Crotty is class. Fast (enough), big (enough), makes good decisions, good distribution, steps off both feet, gets his upper body through tackles. If he could kick he'd be like a slightly less good Aaron Mauger. Presuming SBW goes back to league, I really wouldn't be surprised to see Crotty get a chance for higher honours.

And Nonu has too much ego for a canterbury backline.

I agree that without DC the crusaders are comparably toothless though.

Yep. Normally when I watch a Bulls-Sharks game I only want a nil-all draw and mass retirements, but this week I'll be cheering for the Bulls big time.

At ITM level, but not above. You're clearly a Cantab fan though, so we'll end up agreeing to disagree.

Nonu is probably going there.

Yup.