KEY POINTS:
Canterbury's first five-eighths production line shows no sign of slowing down.
The province that produced Daniel Carter and promising understudy Stephen Brett last night unveiled another potential star.
Colin Slade, on his 21st birthday, turned in a classy, composed display to lead his side into the semifinals with
a comfortable victory over Crusaders franchise partner Tasman.
With Brett battling a persistent injuring, Slade has been pulling Canterbury's strings for the majority of their campaign. Last night he showed he was more just than a competent stand-in.
If finals rugby is supposed to provide the additional pressure that sorts the men from the boys, Slade showed he has already put any childish ways behind him.
His passing was crisp, his kicking accurate and his running incisive. Most impressively, his tactical execution was spot on.
Slade's ability to step up for Canterbury is in sharp contrast to the plight of the other major unions - Auckland, with their attempts to convert fullbacks Isaia Toeava and Lachie Munro; and Wellington, who head into today's quarter-final with Piri Weepu wearing the 10 shirt.
Tasman tried hard enough but they were no match for a Canterbury team that have improved throughout the season and who must now be rated an even chance of taking out the title.
Slade opened the scoring with a sixth-minute penalty and two minutes later a Casey Laulala try gave the home side an early stranglehold on the match.
Scott Hamilton provided the pass and Laulala - who looks to be having more trouble growing a credible afro than he did evading the absent Tasman defence - scampered through and rounded fullback Robbie Malneek to score.
Tasman's scrum stood up well in the opening 20 minutes but Canterbury gradually established their dominance and two successive dominant set pieces brought about their next try. A big Canterbury shove sent Tasman scrambling back into their own in-goal as they sought to clear from a defensive scrum and, from the resulting attacking five-metre reset, the Canterbrians expertly promoted their open-side. That allowed No 8 Kieran Read to take the ball off the back and step inside halfback Kahn Fotuali'i and cross for the simplest of tries.
Tasman finally got on the board with a Miah Nikora penalty 10 minutes before the break but they showed little sign of being able to break down a Canterbury defence that had conceded just nine tries all season.
Tasman plugged away but their ball was expertly slowed down by Canterbury and their runners were picked off with ease.
By contrast, Canterbury looked increasingly dangerous with every raid.
Canterbury will now face the winner of tomorrow's final quarter-final between Hawkes Bay and Waikato.
Canterbury 48 (Paul Williams 2, Casey Laulala, Kieran Read, Colin Slade, Scott Hamilton, James Paterson tries; Slade pen, 4 con, Hamish Gard con)
Tasman 10 (Afeleke Pelenise try; Miah Nikora pen, con). HT: 17-3.
