[Source: 1News]

The Crusaders have claimed a crucial win over the Blues at home, grinding out a clinical 15-3 victory over their rivals marred by a red card to Dalton Papali’i.

The low-scoring affair was a mix of the Crusaders keeping the Blues quiet all evening in Christchurch with dominance of territory and possession and an error-filled second half headlined by Papali’i’s early sendoff.

The Blues captain was yellow-carded by referee Nic Berry early in the second half after he dished out a high shot on Crusaders playmaker Richie Mo’unga.

However, the TMO reviewed the moment after the sin binning and deemed it worthy of a red card, ending Papali’i’s night early when his team needed him most.

It was a moment that was part of what proved to be a seriously impactful series of phases for the game with the Crusaders moments later seemingly knocking the ball on in clear sight before going on to score a try on the left edge via a superb Leicester Fainga’anuku finish.

The handling error was missed by Berry and his officials, allowing the Crusaders to push their lead out to 15-3 where it ultimately stayed.

The Blues can be proud of their defence [which made 188 tackles total in the end] against a hungry Crusaders attack, defending their line for long phases of play and even doing so when down to 14 men for 20 minutes after Papali’i’s dismissal.

But there’s a problem with that pride – they only had the chance to showcase it because their attack was seemingly missing once again.

The Crusaders dominated possession – especially early on – throughout the match but struggled to convert it into points with the Blues fronting up time and time again.

As such, the physicality of the contest was comparable to Test level in some aspects and the early ankle injury to Crusaders prop Joe Moody as well the suspected broken arm of Blues lock Sam Darry reflected it.

But as they always seem to do, the Crusaders finally found the chink in the armour they were looking for and at the 30 minute mark, they finally broke the 0-0 deadlock with Quinten Strange crashing over for the opening try of the match.

Mo’unga and Beauden Barrett exchanged penalties to finish the half, giving the Crusaders a 10-3 lead at the break that the Blues would probably have been happy with for the amount of time they spent on the back foot.

Then came Papali’i’s card and with it, the Blues seemed to lose direction. Their kicking game was poor and stifled their minimal attacking chances so back to defending they went and while they did an impressive job, the scoreboard favoured the Crusaders once more and let them claim a crucial win in a tight top four race in the standings.

Crusaders 15 [Quinten Strange, Leicester Fainga’anuku tries; Richie Mo’unga 1 con, 1 pen]

Blues 3 [Beauden Barrett 1 pen]

HT: 10-3

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