Rugby: Carter injury adds to Crusaders problems

Robbie Fruean of the Crusaders is tackled by Mike Harris of the Rebels during the round one Super Rugby match between the Crusaders and the Rebels. Photo / Getty Images.

Rebels 20
Crusaders 10

If Todd Blackadder thought the Crusaders could only improve in the second half of their opening match against the Rebels in Christchurch, he needed only wait 20 minutes or so after the re-start and the almost inevitable injury to Dan Carter.

Carter appeared to tweak his right calf when fielding a wild pass on his dead ball line, but for whatever reason stayed on despite favouring it, and his charged-down kick led to the try which effectively won it for the Rebels.

At 20-10 to the visitors with 13 minutes remaining, the Crusaders were in deep trouble, but with Colin Slade on the park at fullback, it was a complete mystery as to why Carter remained on until the 74th minute.

To compound matters, just as the Crusaders were launching their comeback against a 14-man Rebels, prop Owen Franks lost the ball on the line.

This year marks the 20th Super Rugby season, a significant anniversary perhaps, but for the traditionally slow-starting Crusaders, some things don't change. There are some ship graveyards less rusty and better organised than the men from Christchurch tonight.

Led by hard-nosed Wallaby Scott Higginbotham, the Melbourne-based team recruited well in the off-season, including signing Kiwi Mike Harris from the Reds, and the Crusaders for whatever reason have always struggled against them. They are a team not usually renowned for their defensive steel - they're better at the high-octane attacking stuff, but at AMI Stadium they needed only make their tackles and wait for the inevitable Crusaders mistake.

There was a sense of inevitability around an error on halftime - the Crusaders, playing with a strong southerly at their backs, were in possession but gave it away and lost a man to the sinbin and gave away three points for good measure. Halfback Mitchell Drummond, who was steady otherwise, was shown a yellow card by referee Nick Bryant, who had a busy night.

Blackadder's team struggled in their pre-season matches, but the common consensus was that with the added quality of Richie McCaw, and playing at home, they would be far too good for the visitors; in fact, a bonus point for scoring more than four tries might even be a possibility. In the end they didn't even get a losing bonus point.

Without the resting Sam Whitelock, Kieran Read or Israel Dagg, the Crusaders struggled to get anything going. Even their set piece, put under pressure by the Reds last weekend, needs improvement.

They managed only three points during the time halfback Nic Stirzaker was sinbinned for his alleged early stomp on McCaw, which resulted in a reversed penalty, and the home side would have been disappointed by the ease in which lock Lopeti Tomani stretched out.

Ben Funnell responded from a lineout drive for the Crusaders, but rather than kick on, they went into reverse, the Rebels assisted by those constant errors. Stirzaker's opportunist try, when he sprinted away after capitalising on Carter's charged-down kick, was a good reward for his team's grit and nous. They hardly missed a beat despite the second-half sinbinning of Sean McMahon.

Rebels 20 (Lopeti Tomani, Nic Stirzaker tries; Mike Harris 2 cons, 2 pens)
Crusaders 10 (Ben Funnell try; Dan Carter con, pen)

Halftime: 13-10.

Hot: The Rebels defence - the men from Melbourne didn't give the Crusaders a sniff. It was hard to remember an offload going to hand for the home team, which meant the Crusaders attack was back to its stop-start worst.

Not: Dan Carter had a night to forget. He played well within himself, clearly suffered a leg injury, and then stayed on and made the mistake which gave up seven points to the Rebels.

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