Penalty tries save Crusaders as Foley miss costs Waratahs

The Crusaders needed two penalty tries to launch their Super Rugby title defence with victory over the Blues Saturday, while Bernard Foley missed a last gasp penalty as the Waratahs fell to the Hurricanes.

The Blues, on home ground in Auckland, were twice forced into crucial errors during the tense encounter when their forwards were under pressure on their own line as they succumbed 24-22.

Debutant Harry Plummer missed chances to level or snatch victory for the Blues just before full-time when a conversion and penalty both went wide.

“We just had a little bit of luck there at the end, which you need sometimes,” said relieved Crusaders skipper Matt Todd.

“Both teams scored good tries when they got down in the opposition ends. So we just had to make sure we were the last one’s to get points.”

The Crusaders led 12-3 at the break before an explosive second-half start saw the Blues score twice for a 17-12 lead.

But they could not maintain the momentum.

“We weren’t clinical enough in certain areas,” said a frustrated Blues captain Patrick Tuipulotu. “When we took our shot we came off second best.”

The Blues, looking a much more polished outfit after their second-last finish last season, dominated possession in the first half.

But even without senior All Blacks Kieran Read, Sam Whitelock and Codie Taylor, the Crusaders broke ahead early with two tries.

The first to right wing Manasa Mataele from a Bryn Hall cross kick and the second was a penalty try when the Blues collapsed a lineout drive.

The Blues opened the second half with Akira Ioane finishing off a 60-metre counter-attack for their opening try. Ofa Tu’ungafasi crashed over minutes later in a wake-up call for the Crusaders.

A George Bridge break sent Mataele over for his second try and then a monster Crusaders scrum forced the home side to concede a second penalty try before replacement Blues scrum-half Augustine Pulu narrowed the gap.

In Sydney, the gutsy Hurricanes edged past the Wallaby-laden Waratahs 20-19.

Foley overtook Matt Burke’s all-time 959-point scoring record for the New South Wales team, but ended up the villain by missing a crucial penalty two minutes from time that would have won the game.

“We came up against a tough team,” said Hurricanes skipper TJ Perenara.

“But we were down the end of the field for a large part of that second half and we applied pressure and that’s what got us there in the end.”

Waratahs coach Daryl Gibson opted to keep Kurtley Beale on the sidelines to manage the workloads of players in a World Cup year.

He instead paired newly-arrived veterans Karmichael Hunt and Adam Ashley-Cooper in the centres, and they seamlessly slotted in alongside Israel Folau and Foley.

The Hurricanes, missing two-time world player of the year Beauden Barrett, conceded six penalties in the opening 17 minutes before they started to find some rhythm.

They got the first try, working the ball to the line and on the 10th phase driving over with Ardie Savea making the touchdown as they went to the break 12-10 behind.

The Waratahs were dominant early in the second period, and Folau made a clever pickup from a sloppy pass and after making ground offloaded to Curtis Rona who scored in the corner.

But the Hurricanes responded and Savea had a try disallowed after a review for an elbow charge on Michael Hooper in the build-up.

Three minutes later Ben Lam suffered the same fate, with his arm shown to go into touch before he grounded the ball by the corner flag.

But the pressure paid off with Du’Plessis Kirifi getting his first try in Super Rugby and Jordie Barrett coverting to give them a 20-18 lead with five minutes left.

Foley then had opportunity to be a hero, but blew the chance.

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