{"id":8293,"date":"2012-02-24T14:34:27","date_gmt":"2012-02-24T12:34:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/02\/rugby-crusaders-pip-blues-as-weepu-drop-goal-drifts-wide\/"},"modified":"2012-02-24T14:34:27","modified_gmt":"2012-02-24T12:34:27","slug":"rugby-crusaders-pip-blues-as-weepu-drop-goal-drifts-wide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/rugby-crusaders-pip-blues-as-weepu-drop-goal-drifts-wide\/","title":{"rendered":"Rugby-Crusaders pip Blues as Weepu drop goal drifts wide"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Feb 24 (Reuters) – Auckland Blues’ new recruit Piri
\nWeepu missed a potential match-winning drop goal after the final
\nwhistle and the Canterbury Crusaders held on to beat the home
\nside 19-18 in their Super Rugby clash at Eden Park on Friday.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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

Four months after New Zealand captain Richie McCaw lifted
\nthe Webb Ellis trophy on the same ground, 13 World Cup winning
\nAll Blacks were included in the squads for the opening game of
\nthe 2012 Super Rugby competition.<\/p>\n

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

Despite the numerous World Cup winners on show the match was
\npunctuated by sloppy handling, poor tackling and a shaky Blues
\nlineout, though it still provided sweeping movements from both
\nsides that brought the crowd of more than 30,000 to full voice.<\/p>\n

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

“We were pretty lucky to get away with it,” Crusaders
\ncaptain Kieran Read said. “There was real intensity out there
\nand for a first hit out, it was really outstanding.<\/p>\n

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

“We managed to put a bit of pressure down their end of the
\nfield which got us a few penalties and that’s great.”<\/p>\n

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

The Crusaders’ forwards slowly ground down the Blues’ pack
\nand kept them in the Auckland half for much of the second spell
\nuntil the final minute when Weepu’s drop goal attempt was
\npartially charged and fluttered wide.<\/p>\n

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

Crusaders rookie flyhalf Tyler Bleyendaal, who stepped into
\nthe gap left by injured All Blacks pivot Dan Carter, looked
\ncomfortable with the step up from provincial rugby and slotted
\n14 points by converting Robbie Fruean’s first half try and
\naddding four penalties.<\/p>\n

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

Blues loose forward Chris Lowrey and winger David Raikuna
\nscored early tries while flyhalf Michael Hobbs kicked two
\npenalties and a conversion.<\/p>\n

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

“Games like this between the Blues and Crusaders come down
\nto inches and that’s what happened,” Blues captain Keven Mealamu
\nsaid.
\n\u00a0 Continued…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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

Feb 24 (Reuters) – Auckland Blues’ new recruit Piri Weepu missed a potential match-winning drop goal after the final whistle and the Canterbury Crusaders held on to beat the home side 19-18 in their Super Rugby clash at Eden Park on Friday. Four months after New Zealand captain Richie McCaw lifted the Webb Ellis trophy […]<\/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-8293","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\/8293","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=8293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8293\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}