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JOHANNESBURG (AP) – The Crusaders have maintained their seemingly unstoppable progress toward a ninth Super Rugby title, which is in full swing on Saturday and will welcome the Lions in the final of next weekend, a repeat of the 2017 championship game.
won this match in Johannesburg a year ago. The defending champions will have the advantage this year of playing the home finals in Christchurch.
The Crusaders advanced to their 13th final in the 23 Super Rugby seasons when they crashed the Hurricanes 30-12 The Lions returned 14-0 to New South Wales Waratahs to win the second semifinal 44-26 in Johannesburg later on Saturday. The Lions will play their third straight final, and are still looking for a first title.
The Lions found themselves at two quick tests of the Sydney Waratahs at Ellis Park. The 2017 finalists responded with six tries, including two by hooker Malcolm Marx, who was at the center of a dominant melee of Lions and a rolling maul that the Waratahs could not match.
Flanker Kwagga Smith also scored two tries like, With the game 19-19 at half-time, the Lions scored 18 unanswered points in the second half to clinch their place in the final.
Crusaders winger George Bridge scored his 15th try of the season, matching the record season, while the Crusaders improved to 20-0 in the home playoffs.
Hurricane winger Ben Lam recovered the season's record to 16 – an all-time record – with the last try of the game but he was "
" It was awesome, the boys were really dug, "said Crusader captain Sam Whitelock. "We knew that it was going to take a performance of 80 minutes and we were there, we did not give up." 19659002 "" We focused all week … and I was really proud of the boys. They did what they said they were going to do. "
While the crusaders dominated from the start, winning 80% of possession in the first half, the match was rotated to play periods immediately before and after half-time, Crusaders opened a lead of 18-7 with tries at Bridge and the semifinal Richie Mo 'unga, who also added a conversion and two penalties in the first half.
The Hurricanes had the last possession of the first half and, trailing by 11 points But they conceded the possession and the teams went at half-time with this margin intact
which made it imperative that the Hurricanes score in the first period in the second period.A botched reboot of 22, gave the Crossed the chance they needed to secure the game.
Center Jack Goodhue made a long comeback in the Hurricanes 22 and quickly chained with Captain All Black Kieran Read who pushed the llon to the line The Cr The usaders immediately recovered the ball for scrum half Bryn Hall and he found center David Havili in the lineup to score the test that saved the match to 25-7.
The Hurricanes entered the game as underdogs and knowing that on the evidence of crusader wins in their last 13 games, they could not afford to make mistakes.
Instead, their handling was mediocre and they played in the hands of the Crusaders with an imperfect punt game. The Hurricanes could not think of any way to break the Crusaders' defense but a first-half try of Julian Savea.
They tried to build phases to stretch the defense but Crusaders managed to absorb The Crusaders, after an uncertain start, were guided to victory by Mo 'unga whose kick created a try late for Braydon Ennor and who kicked. four of six shots to go Al.
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