View photosKEY POINTS:
The Highlanders won the scrums. The Crusaders won the rugby - when they weren't dropping the ball.
Last week, the Force copped the full blast of the Crusaders at their probing, efficient, counter-attacking best. This week, almost as if they sub-consciously did not want to embarrass their southern
neighbours overmuch, the Crusaders did enough to win, but not enough to win style points - in the first half, anyway.
It all looked so very different in the opening exchanges when a typical sliding run and wafting dummy from Daniel Carter saw Alando Soakai and Nick Evans grabbing air and thenCarter converting his own try.
But the opening 20 minutes - and much of the rest of the game - saw the Crusaders having some puzzling handling lapses.
None was more ironic than Ross Filipo - the big lock for whom everything turned to gold as he bagged a rare hat-trick last week - shelling a pass while under little pressure during a Crusaders raid.
All this inefficiency began to give the Highlanders some belief - as did that bulldozer scrum with Carl Hayman, Clarke Dermody and Anton Oliver giving the big push to their red-and-black opposites. The Highlanders tackles began to gain in muscle and bite, leading to more Crusaders errors.
They began the second half the same way - a glorious run by the forwards with the impressive Reuben Thorne, Richie McCaw and Corey Flynn prominent and then Carter exquisitely picking up a pass and slinging a long ball out for what should have been a try.
But Casey Laulala took the ball into a tackle, it was turned over and the Highlanders battled back upfield.
In the end it was big No 8 Mose Tuiali'i who played the central role in the score that pretty much decided the match within the 50-minute mark.
Tuiali'i has been forging ahead of Sione Lauaki in the race for an All Black World Cup loose forward spot and he underscored that lead.
He made several powerful runs and, when he loomed up in support of Flynn, he ran, beat a man, took the tackle, dummied right, passed left and made the space which brought a try to Caleb Ralph and a 17-3 lead.
Ralph continues to keep Doug Howlett in his sights in all-time Super rugby try scoring but Tuiali'i's running and clever work with the ball suggests a maturing footballer and means Lauaki may be losing sight of him.
That try steadied the Crusaders and they added another touchdown, to Laulala, after a clever off-load by Rua Tipoki.
The Highlanders missed Jimmy Cowan and, while Evans tried hard, They only rarely looked like scoring a try. They strove manfully to breach the Crusaders' defence - which was in excellent working order - but didn't have the firepower. Then it was the Highlanders who started turning the ball over.
And we all know what happens then.
The bonus point try - again to Laulala - came after a turnover, a Tipoki thrust and the Highlanders, in the words of the fine old Scots song, Flower of Scotland, were heading homewards 'tae think again'.
Crusaders 38 (D. Carter, C. Ralph, C. Laulala 2, R. Tipoki tries tries; Carter 4 con, pen; S. Brett con), Highlanders 3 (N. Evans pen). Halftime: 10-3.
