Cat nap almost catches Cantabs

To no one's great surprise the Crusaders beat the Cats last night. To everyone's great surprise they made rather hard work of it.

It was never supposed to be such an ordeal. Never supposed to produce the kind of groan-fest normally associated with the unsolicited and surprise playing of Celine Dion at full volume.

And it was certainly never supposed to be so close.

Pity those tasked with cleaning the stadium, for there will be an unpleasant volume of fingernails to be cleared. The final 10 minutes should have been about show-boating on Justin Marshall and Andrew Mehrtens' big night.

Instead they were about salvaging a game which was uncomfortably close to being lost and indeed looked as if it had been when Marshall's clearance was charged down in the final minutes.

Everyone thought they knew what would happen when a tired, ordinary bunch of South Africans from the high veldt encountered a less tired, particularly gifted bunch of New Zealanders on a wet night in Christchurch.

But that's probably why bookmakers are always smiling as sport has a funny habit of ignoring popular wisdom and biting the complacent.

Given their run of form so far this season, no one factored in the possibility of the Crusaders suffering a system malfunction. There were gremlins in every part of their game. The greasy ball didn't help, but it will be rare to see the Crusaders spill so much ball again.

Their lineout was so wobbly that Chris Jack, hoping for a night off, was forced into the fray after 55 minutes. Dan Carter followed him shortly after the supremely athletic Cats No 8 beat Leon MacDonald to a Conrad Jantjes kick ahead to make it uncomfortably close at 21-19. The substitutions were a clear sign of the unease coach Robbie Deans was obviously feeling.

Also not factored into the equation was the gutsy effort by the Cats. This is their third week on the road, the traditional point at which South African teams capitulate.

This mob, though, worked hard to ensure they didn't pick up the obvious pussy moniker. There was some real intensity and aggression in their defence.

There was even some skilful interplay where the bullish charges of Smith caused the Crusaders all number of problems. Admittedly the problems were exasperated by a few Crusaders players seemingly trialling for places in the Pumpkin Patch XV. And nor did MacDonald's rash decision to take a quick lineout help much. Poor old Andrew Mehrtens didn't hear the sirens and caught it just as the massive Os du Randt hit him at full speed.

That collision led to a turnover, a big charge from Smith, a clever kick from Andre Pretorius and a try for Conrad Jantjes. In some ways it appeared like a big mistake on the Cats' part. It served notice they actually had the audacity to think they could win. Not only the audacity, the ability, too, and that slowly shook the Crusaders from their slumber.

They never looked comfortable, though, and had it not been for an incredibly brave tackle by Carter on the escaping CJ van der Linde, the Cats could have been on a wave that would sweep them out of sight.

Its probably worth labouring how brave that tackle was, for van der Linde, although built like a bus, was moving like a Ferrari.

It's probably also worth labouring how laboured Andrew Cole the referee was. That is par for the course in Super 12 this season and barely worth mentioning were it not for the fact he'll have charge of the All Blacks' second test against the Lions.

He might want to look behind him at the breakdown a bit more often to see if anyone is observing the back foot.

Mind you if he did that, he would restrict the time he could spend poking his nose into the breakdown to make the most pedantic decisions.

Crusaders 40
(J. Leoo, R. Thorne, R. Gear (2), M. Tuialii tries; A. Mehrtens 2 cons, 3 pens, D. Carter con).

Cats 36
(C. Jantjes (2), J. Smith, B. Pietrese tries; A. Pretorius 3 pens, 2 cons, DG)

- HERALD ON SUNDAY