All Blacks flyhalf Daniel Carter scored two tries among 27 points on Saturday as the Canterbury Crusaders beat the Queensland Reds 47-21 in a Super 14 rugby.
Carter achieved his huge points haul, carrying him past 500 points in Super 12 or 14 games, despite a moderate kicking performance that saw him land only seven goals from 12 attempts.
The final score line at Ballymore hid the fact that the Queensland Reds competed for most of the match, led 14-11 at half-time and were still narrowly ahead with three-quarters of the match elapsed.
After a first-half try to Wallaby Drew Mitchell, a second-half score by captain Chris Latham gave the Reds a 21-16 lead and hope of an upset victory.
Canterbury tore apart those hopes with a magnificent counter-attacking performance that brought four tries, including Carter’s second, in the last 14 minutes. All Blacks Casey Laulaua, Rico Gear and Aaron Mauger also scored during that period as the Crusaders took a bonus point and turned an even match into a rout.
”We didn’t feel like ourselves in the first half,” said Crusaders captain Richie McCaw.
”We realised at half-time that we had to hold on to the ball, work harder, and we did that in the second half,” he said. ”But it certainly wasn’t polished. We took our opportunities, but there’s still a lot of work to do.”
Latham was hard pressed to explain what happened to the narrow advantage his team had worked so hard to achieve. He saw the half-time lead, the narrow gap produced by his own try, evaporate as Canterbury stormed to victory though the Reds’ shared territory and possession.
”I was personally pleased with the boys and proud to be their captain tonight,” Latham said. ”This match goes to show why Canterbury are the best team in the competition. They’ve proven it time and time again and they proved it tonight as well.”
Canterbury’s late burst of scoring was breathtaking. They seemed able to create gaps in a previously airtight defence and it was often Carter, picking inside channels from flyhalf, who set tries in motion.
He scored off a Leon MacDonald break in the 55th minute, immediately before Latham’s try, made Laulala’s score and ran off Mauger’s burst to notch his second in the 70th minute.
The Queensland Reds lost two players to yellow cards and ended the match with only 13 players. — Sapa-AP