manasa mataele. {source: Google}
Fiji-born wing Manasa Mataele scored a double for the Crusaders as they defeated Blues 24-22 in their super rugby opener last night.
Mataele scored the opening try of the match off the back of a mistake from Blues fullback Michael Collins in the 18th minute.
The 22-year-old scored his second of the night after a George Bridge break sent the Fijian over in the 54th minute of play.
Crusaders captain Matt Todd says they played according to their game plan.
“Coming up here we know the Blues have a very good preseason and we had a good start and we played the game on how we wanted to. How we control the game the way we wanted to. We knew the boys would come back when we certainly down there. In the second half, every time we got points we knew we would get up and we did.”
Blues Co-Captain Patrick Tuipolotu says it was unfortunate that the result was not in their favor.
“I think we trained well during the week and when we come here, it wasn’t our day and one of our focus is to be tough upfront but credit to the Crusaders side.”
In other matches:
Hurricanes beat Waratahs 20-19
Sharks hammered Sunwolves 45-10
Bulls thrashed Stormers 40-3
