Super Rugby R13 review: Reds capitulate against Crusaders; Brumbies and Force record gritty wins

YOU can read a lot about a side from their kick-chase and against the Crusaders the Reds’ was deplorable. Read our round 13 Super Rugby review!

THE Brumbies and Force continued their impressive Super Rugby seasons in round 13 while the Reds hit a new low in a 28-point defeat to the Crusaders in Brisbane.

Richard Graham’s side held a 17-16 lead at half-time but were quickly put to the sword in a breathtaking 20-minute blitz from the Crusaders after the break.

In Canberra, the Brumbies won a kick-heavy encounter with former coach Jake White and the Sharks while the Force got their African adventure off to a fine start with a seven-point victory over the Cheetahs.

The Rebels fell to the Hurricanes on Friday night while the Chiefs, Highlanders and Bulls all enjoyed crucial wins.

Read on for a full review of round 13!

CLINICAL CANES MAKE REBELS PAY PENALTY

Another game, another gutsy effort … another close loss for the Melbourne Rebels.

This time the margin was 10 points as Tony McGahan’s side fell at home to the Hurricanes, but it was again a case of so near yet so far for Melbourne.

And again it was ill-discipline that cost them, with Beauden Barrett nailing six penalties, as well as a conversion, for a 20-point personal haul as he literally put the boot into the Rebels.

A string of six penalties in a row conceded by the home side after half-time proved particularly costly, as Barrett kicked his side clear of the Rebels after they had been well in the game at 12-10 down heading into the break.

For all the talk of the high-octane Hurricanes, the visitors were well held for much of the night by Melbourne.

In fact it was the Rebels who put on the early razzle-dazzle through a brilliant Bryce Hegarty try that featured a chip and chase from in-form fullback Jason Woodward.

The Canes looked to be playing in second gear for much of the match, keeping Melbourne at arm’s length, but they finally hit top gear nearing the hour mark when a sweeping move started by Andre Taylor resulted in one of the tries of the season.

The fullback gathered the ball well inside his own half and shaped to kick, only to keep the ball in hand and burst down the sideline into Melbourne’s 22. A couple of phases later and the ball found Barrett, who kicked expertly across-field for Cory Jane. The winger was tackled as he caught the ball but managed to offload inside to his skipper Conrad Smith, who fell over the line to score his side’s only try of the night.

It was one of few highlights-reel moments for the Hurricanes, but it was enough.

The bad news for the Rebels was a seventh loss for the season. The good news? They will have an excellent chance to not make it eight when they play the equally bad Reds this weekend.

REDS A RABBLE AS CRUSADERS SOUND TITLE WARNING

You can read a lot about a team from their kick-chase and after a dismal performance on that very front on Sunday it’s obvious all is not right at Queensland Reds.

Time and time again the hosts went to the air but rather than a charging Reds player awaiting them on reception, the Crusaders had an incredible amount of space to use on the counter.

Poor passes, missed tackles and a turnover count of 15 won’t make for pleasant reading for under-fire Reds coach Richard Graham but a 20-minute blitz by the Crusaders just after half-time was perhaps best summed up by skipper James Horwill.

“Soft moments,” Horwill replied when asked what was going wrong at the Reds. “Wyatt Crockett (quick tap) try ... soft moment. Not chasing a kick ... soft moment (in the Johnny McNicholl try).”

There were enough good signs in the first half to suggest the Reds could produce an upset as they made the most of Andy Ellis’s sin-binning to lead 17-16 at the break.

But they returned a disinterested rabble, and conceded four tries faster than you can say Ewen McKenzie.

What must the now-Wallabies coach be thinking? Is something awry with the playing group? Has Graham lost the dressing room? They’re all valid questions, and questions the 30,000 strong crowd on hand on Sunday deserve answers to.

The Crusaders, meanwhile, are looking more like champions every week. Colin Slade is finally delivering after an extended run in the No. 10 shirt while they’ve still got Kieran Read to come back in from concussion and, following the June Tests, a bloke by the name of Dan Carter.

Scary thought.

NO PLACE LIKE ‘HOME’ FOR SADERS WINGER

Amid the carnage of the Crusaders’ crushing win, there was one proud Queenslander smiling at Suncorp Stadium on Sunday.

The problem is that he was clad in red … and black.

Giant winger Nemani Nadolo grew up in Queensland, went to school at Nudgee College and describes himself as a “Brisbane kid” on his Twitter biography.

That’s followed by “playing rugby across the ditch for the Crusaders”, which is where he has finally found a home after false starts at the Reds, Force, Waratahs, in France and in England as well as Japan.

He celebrated his homecoming in style on Sunday, bagging a double to make it six tries for the season as the Crusaders ran riot against the Queensland side his dad once played for.

“It was good, especially in front of the family for the first time,” Nadolo told Fox Sports after the match, adding that the Crusaders had given him permission to roam across the backline and make the most of his enormous frame.

“Got a licence to just have a go and use my size. At the back of a great backline, they make my job a lot easier. Really enjoying my time.”

Nadolo has certainly caught the eye of late, hitting a run of hot form that has either coincided with or helped kickstart the Crusaders’ five-game win streak and began with a hat-trick against the Cheetahs last month.

“He’s incredible. I was always worried he wasn’t fast enough but he seems to have fixed that up,” former Wallaby Greg Martin said on Fox Sports.

“And when you’re 125kg he’s going to cause havoc to a lot of teams to come.”

BRUMBIES BEST WHITE AT FORMER BOSS’S OWN GAME

It wasn’t the kind of game that anyone other than Brumbies fans will look favourably upon at the end of the season but as Pat McCabe said Sunday: “often times in finals those are the sort of kicking strategies you need to win the tight games”.

A tight game indeed and one that was always going to be so as rain fell steadily throughout Saturday’s night’s encounter at GIO Stadium.

The Brumbies had the better of the kicking battles as Nic White and Jesse Mogg found space in behind the Sharks while the fullback defused a number of towering high balls from the likes of Francois Steyn.

The Sharks No. 10 didn’t have a happy night. Not only did he miss three shots at penalty goal but twice kicked out on the full from restarts – one of which nearly ended up in the stands.

Despite Steyn’s dismal night with the boot the visitors remained within striking distance of the Brumbies until a charging Sam Carter hit a brilliant short ball from Nic White to dive over beside the posts.

It was another example of the Brumbies halfback’s ever-improving game-management, and one that must surely have him on track to wear the Wallabies No. 9 jersey in the first Test against France on June 7.

The Brumbies are now on the plane to South Africa where they face the Cheetahs and Bulls over the next two weeks. They’re capable of winning both matches on tour, while the loss of Joe Tomane to a fractured eye socket could be offset by the return of star winger Henry Speight.

Their pack is performing while the backs have shown they can get the job done in both dry and wet conditions. They’ll be hard to topple for the Australian conference.

BADGER GOES GLOBAL AS FORCE FLY TO FOURTH

“It will go to Nick Cummins and he’ll be up the guts and into them, straight in for another meat pie.”

Was it the “Honey Badger”, Cummins, describing his own try in another classic post-match interview? No, this actually came during the game - from a South African commentator.

If there were any doubts about Cummins’ global reach they were extinguished during the Force’s clash away to the Cheetahs, first by a shot of a Badger imitator in the crowd at Free State Stadium, and then when the local commentator put to good use his learnings from “Chewin’ the Fat 101”, making a great fist of the cult figure’s Aussie slang to call his latest five-pointer.

But aside from pumping up potential recruits for his language classes, the most important thing for Cummins and his Force teammates from the weekend was that they got the win they were looking for in Bloemfontein.

Michael Foley’s side returned from the bye with the opening game of its South African tour, and duly knocked over the Cheetahs to notch a seventh win for the season .

It was a classic Force victory, built on tenacious tackling and a couple of opportunistic, counter-attacking tries – to Cummins and his back-three partner Jayden Hayward.

Led brilliantly up front by skipper Matt Hodgson, who was again excellent at the breakdown and in defence, the Force continued with the no-frills approach that had served them so well up until their break - much to Foley’s delight.

“There are a lot of guys in that team who’ve been at the Force for a long time and haven’t necessarily been rewarded for their hard work and they get a sense that every player in the squad, not just guys that are here but are back home as well, puts in for each other and that drives them,” Foley said after the match.

“Things like defence and breakdown for us - I’m always very confident they guys are going to give maximum effort.”

It’s exactly why the Force find themselves in fourth on the Super Rugby ladder and second in the Australian conference, where they look set to push the Brumbies all the way.

Originally published as Super Rugby R13 review: Reds capitulate against Crusaders; Brumbies and Force record gritty wins