Crusaders claim NZ title

Title success: Crusaders' Zac Guildford tackles Hurricanes' Piri Weepu

The Canterbury Crusaders beat the Wellington Hurricanes 16-9 on Saturday to win the New Zealand conference title and earn a place in the Super Rugby play-offs.

Centre Robbie Fruean scored the game's only try and Dan Carter kicked eight points against a fired-up Hurricanes side in a match that amounted to an All Blacks selection trial.

The Crusaders earned a top-three seeding as a result of the win, but must wait until South Africa's Stormers play their final match of the season to find out if they finish second or third overall.

Finishing second will put them in the semi-finals but third place would mean they would have to come through the first round of the play-offs.

However, even if the Stormers beat the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein later on Saturday, the Crusaders are guaranteed home advantage in their opening play-off match.

They remain without a suitable home after the Christchurch earthquake caused damage to the AMI Stadium in February.

Adversity

Given such adversity, though, edging the Auckland Blues to the New Zealand title counts as a major achievement for Todd Blackadder's side.

The two sides were deadlocked at 6-6 after a gruelling first half played out in the Wellington rain, but the Crusaders were a converted try ahead within three minutes of the break.

In-form winger Zac Guildford weaved in and out of cover tackles before throwing a high pass to Fruean, who went over in the corner for his sixth try of the season.

Aaron Cruden narrowed the deficit to 13-9 with his third penalty and would have given the Hurricanes the lead had he crossed in the 65th minute.

However, Crusaders full-back Tom Marshall made a crunching tackle to deny the fly-half.

Scrum-half Andy Ellis kicked a 45-metre drop goal three minutes later to complete the scoring, with the Crusaders defence having to withstand pressure in order to seal the win.

The match marked a swansong for Hurricanes captain Andrew Hore, who has been released by the club along with fellow All Black Ma'a Nonu.

"Pretty proud of the way the boys fronted up against a pretty solid Crusaders side," said the hooker.

"It's sad, it's no secret that a few of us didn't want to leave on other people's terms but we have to (but) we can hold our heads up high when we go on to greener pastures."