Reds hold off Crusaders to end 25-year Super drought

1 week ago 7

By Murray Wenzel

May 4, 2024 — 6.23pm

Fraser McReight has led a Queensland Reds complaint successful Christchurch to drawback his side’s 25-year losing streak against the Crusaders successful New Zealand.

The Reds bushed the Crusaders 33-28 connected Saturday, stoic defence successful the last minutes aft gathering a 12-point pb with six minutes to play staving disconnected what looked acceptable to beryllium different gutting adjacent miss.

It was the Reds’ archetypal triumph successful the metropolis since Tim Horan, Ben Tune, Toutai Kefu, Daniel Herbert and Nathan Sharpe wore the jersey successful 1999 - and conscionable the Crusaders’ 2nd nonaccomplishment to an Australian broadside successful Christchurch since 2004.

The visitors played superb counter-attacking rugby, Tim Ryan’s treble making it 5 tries successful 2 Super Rugby Pacific starts for the 20-year-old and unheralded No.10 Lawson Creighton’s kicking crippled superb.

Back from a two-game suspension, flanker McReight showed his people astatine the breakdown, backrow partners Liam Wright and Harry Wilson followed him and winger Mac Grealy was impactful.

Victory made it 3 wins against New Zealand sides this twelvemonth for the Reds, their lone trans-Tasman losses coming via after-the-siren tries to the Hurricanes and Blues.

The Reds person held connected for a five-point Super Rugby Pacific triumph implicit the Crusaders successful Christchurch.

The five-tries-to-four triumph improved them to 5-5, putting them connected the doorstep of the apical four.

“It’s massive. We truly banded unneurotic aft immoderate adjacent losses and it’s large to alteration that here,” Wright said.

“We knew we needed physicality and our beardown set-piece and you saw that with our scrums astatine the end. We trusted each different and closing those idiosyncratic moments was truly important.”

The Crusaders, who person shown immense betterment since an 0-5 start, dropped to 2-8 and mislaid skipper and All Blacks prima Scott Barrett to an evident backmost wounded aft conscionable 14 minutes.

After 8 penalties successful the archetypal 16 minutes, it was the Reds who opened the scoring done McReight, with fullback Jock Campbell’s cleanable interruption mounting the platform.

Four aboriginal kicks successful down the Crusaders defence amounted to thing initially, but yet created the abstraction for Josh Flook to interruption down the near wing.

Campbell was progressive again arsenic winger Ryan finished an 80-metre special.

Dallas McLeod got the hosts connected the committee successful the 38th infinitesimal but the Reds regained power erstwhile prop Jeffery Toomaga-Allen scored from a line-out turnover to statesman the 2nd half.

The Crusaders scored the adjacent two, Quinten Strange’s effort to level the scores controversially upheld erstwhile replays were incapable to accidental conclusively the shot had been held up.

Harry Wilson past did it himself, charging down an exit footwear and regathering to people a effort that stunted the comeback.

Ryan earned different erstwhile helium sped onto Campbell’s spot kick, and erstwhile Ryan Smith forced a turnover with a heads-up antiaircraft play soon aft the Reds looked home.

But Ryan gave distant a lineball violative punishment with the Reds successful premier presumption and Sevu Reece raced disconnected for his 100th first-class try.

The Crusaders burnt down the near borderline again seeking the go-ahead effort but were stopped, with the Reds capable to withstand 1 past propulsion and rewrite the grounds books.

-AAP