Crusaders put Bulls to sword

Crusaders: Three tries

Defending champions Bulls found themselves on the receiving end of a 27-0 demolition by the Canterbury Crusaders on Saturday.

The Crusaders' explosive back line supported a superb defensive display, running in three tries to clinch a fifth straight win for the Christchurch outfit.

All Blacks centre Sonny Bill Williams, fullback Israel Dagg and replacement winger Tom Marshall all touched down in the match, which was played in Timaru after the Crusaders' home ground was damaged in the recent earthquake.

Bulls number 10 Morne Steyn found little or no opportunities to make his mark on the game, as the hosts successfully starved their error-prone opponents of possession.

The Springbok fly-half had just one opportunity to show off his prodigious goal-kicking skills during the clash, which he missed.

Pressure

Matt Berquist, standing in for injured All Black fly-half Dan Carter opened the scoring for the Crusders with a 10th minute penalty.

And four minutes later Williams burst through the Bulls' midfield at halfway to score his third try in Super rugby.

This time Berquist missed the kick, but he was on target on 22 minutes to add three more and again on the stroke of half time to take his side into the break with a 14-0 lead.

The Crusaders were able to pile on the pressure straight from the restart when Victor Matfield fumbled the kick-off reception.

The home side recycled the ball through a dozen phases before Dagg drove through two tacklers from five metres out to score.

Berquist, who missed all three conversions, failed to add the extras but struck his fourth penalty in the 68th minute to make it 22-0.

Disruptive

Marshall then added the third try with nine minutes to go after good work from impressive centre Robbie Fruean to put his side's campaign for an eighth Super Rugby title firmly on course.

"It was a great defensive effort in the first half," said Crusaders' stand-in captain Kieran Read.

"Just the way we continued to build that pressure showed where we are as a team at the moment.

Matfield, whose evening was spoiled by a disruptive display from opposite number Chris Jack, described the Bulls performance as unacceptable.

"It was very poor," he said. "We couldn't hold onto the ball. We couldn't put four or five phases together, it wasn't acceptable."