The Crusaders came away from Newlands on Saturday with a hard fought 20-14 win over the much fancied Stormers in front of their capacity home crowd in Cape Town. It was only the second defeat in ten games for the Stormers.
Sonny Bill Williams ignited the game early on with yet another piece of magic that had the locals scratching their heads as to how their much talked about defensive unit were split right open. The offload, with Williams sucking in two tacklers, allowed support runners to break free.
It ended with prop Wyatt Crockett scoring the first of his two tries on the day, with combined with the kicking of Matt Berquist, gave them the deserved win.
In the last day we’ve been in the middle of another Peter De Villiers controversy, this time surrounding comments he recently made about Sonny Bill Williams’ technique. Crusaders coach Todd Blackadder was full of praise for the league convert though after the match.
“Sonny did provide some special moments. There is no doubt that he is a quality player. He really is, and weve got a lot of quality players. There had been a lot of media attention. As we drove in here, the whole crowd were chanting his name outside the bus!
“Its not easy when you are in the spotlight, and there has been a lot of attention on the midfield battle too. But he always plays well for this team, and the team play really well for him too. He was outstanding tonight, and he did a great job for us, and really showed what potential and abilities hes got. Hes a game-breaker, theres no doubt about that.
“Its too early to talk about the World Cup, as the All Black side is not selected. But I think hes got some great skills with his offloading and he certainly creates some awareness in space. He puts guys into gaps,” Blackadder said. Stormers captain Schalk Burger echoed the sentiment.
“Ja, he can offload, hey! I must get some of that glue that hes got stuck on to his hands.”
Time:
04:44
Sign In