Three tries six minutes either side of halftime destroyed the Chiefs’ hopes of wrapping up Super Rugby's New Zealand Conference in Christchurch last night.
The Crusaders’ crushing 43-15 victory at AMI Stadium kept their chances of winning the conference alive and did considerable damage to the Chiefs’ chances of finishing as top overall seed for home advantage in the playoffs.
Scoring five tries to two and dominating much of the play, the Crusaders showed they are going to be dangerous come playoffs time but it was that decisive period just before the break and just after that enabled the home team to break the game open.
The Chiefs, who were without co-captain and All Blacks blindside flanker Liam Messam after he failed to recover from a lower back strain suffered in the gym last Monday, replaced by Ross Filipo, were never in the match.
Meanwhile, Dan Carter became the first player to go past 1500 points in Super Rugby.
In tonight’s match, the Hurricane will face the Highlanders at 7.35.
Story by: Prasheel Chandra
