{"id":12414,"date":"2012-07-14T12:44:23","date_gmt":"2012-07-14T10:44:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/07\/rugby-crusaders-earn-home-playoff-with-early-try-blitz\/"},"modified":"2012-07-14T12:44:23","modified_gmt":"2012-07-14T10:44:23","slug":"rugby-crusaders-earn-home-playoff-with-early-try-blitz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/rugby-crusaders-earn-home-playoff-with-early-try-blitz\/","title":{"rendered":"Rugby-Crusaders earn home playoff with early try blitz"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

July 14<\/span> (Reuters) – The Canterbury Crusaders smashed
\nAustralia’s Western Force in the first half before claiming a
\nbonus point 38-24 victory to secure fourth place in the final
\nSuper Rugby standings on Saturday.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The seven-time champions ran in tries through Israel Dagg,
\nSean Maitland, Andy Ellis and Matt Todd before the break to
\nensure a playoff back at Rugby League Park in Christchurch next
\nweekend, most likely against South Africa’s Bulls or Sharks.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

All Blacks Dan Carter and Richie McCaw were withdrawn at
\nhalftime for the playoff campaign ahead and the Crusaders took
\ntheir foot off the gas to allow the Perth-based Force back into
\nthe contest in the second half.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The Force scored a converted tries through Kyle Godwin,
\nAlfie Mafi and Josh Holmes to give Wallabies lock Nathan Sharpe
\nsomething to smile about in his 162nd and final Super Rugby
\nmatch.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“We played with good intensity at the end of the first half
\nand really had them on the ropes and it’s a shame we couldn’t
\ncontinue it,” Crusaders skipper McCaw said in a televised
\ninterview.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“We’re back to square one next week and we’ve ourself a
\nchance in the finals so we’ll see how that goes.”<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The Crusaders started at a canter and the match was less
\nthan a minute old when fullback Dagg touched down in the corner
\nand flyhalf Carter converted brilliantly from the touchline.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

While there was room for debate about whether Dagg had got
\nthe ball down cleanly, there was no doubt about Maitland’s
\neffort 15 minutes later after the winger cut through the defence
\nto score.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The fourth official was back in action after 34 minutes,
\nhowever, and he confirmed the third try despite scrumhalf Ellis
\nforcing his way over the line with what looked like a double
\nmovement.
\n\u00a0 Continued…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

July 14 (Reuters) – The Canterbury Crusaders smashed Australia’s Western Force in the first half before claiming a bonus point 38-24 victory to secure fourth place in the final Super Rugby standings on Saturday. The seven-time champions ran in tries through Israel Dagg, Sean Maitland, Andy Ellis and Matt Todd before the break to ensure […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-12414","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12414\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}