New Zealand’s Canterbury Crusaders maintained their winning start to the Super 14 season with a third successive victory in beating the Stormers 22-0 in Cape Town on Friday.
They dominated all aspects of the game and denied the Stormers even the chance of a kickable penalty until the final 10 minutes when the home side had little option but to kick for the lineout.
The Crusaders scored a try and 11 points in each half and the only blot on their copybook was their failure to score four tries and therefore claim a third successive bonus point.
Scrumhalf Andrew Ellis claimed the first in the 25th minute when he went over from a goal-line ruck after a great break by number eight Mose Tuiali’i from a lineout on halfway.
Flyhalf Dan Carter missed the conversion but kicked two penalties to give his side a comfortable halftime lead which he extended with a third nine minutes after the restart.
Carter created the second score with a pinpoint cross-field kick for right wing Sean Maitland to collect and touch down in the in-goal area, following a break out from the Crusaders’ 22 started by Ellis. The 19-year-old Maitland started the match after Kade Poki strained a hamstring in the warm-up.
Carter missed the conversion but added a 68th minute penalty to complete the scoring. – Reuters