SteveC Report: Another big step for the Crusaders
Cru 0-4 Saints
By Steve
March 8 2009
Messageboard regular Steve has followed the Crusaders from National League Two to the Super League – and has kindly provided us with a superb fans’ report from Saturday evening’s narrow 4-0 defeat at the hands of St.Helens. Tom Armstrong’s second-half try settled an intriguing contest at the Brewery Field as South Wales welcomed the league-shield holders to Bridgend.
Against this giant of the rugby league world the Crusaders thrust themselves tonight, watched by a club record 6,351 fans at a damp Brewery Field. Crusaders started brightly showing innovation with an ‘onside kick-off', rather than the conventional deep kick that only narrowly failed to catch out the St Helens defenders. However, the home side were quickly on the back foot and the opening minutes were spent largely in their own half of the field, the first crisis being around ten minutes in when a sequence of penalties and goal line drop outs gave the visitors five successive sets of six virtually on the Crusaders' goal line, but the defence held strong. Around fifteen minutes into the game the Crusaders had their best chance of the half when Peter Lupton narrowly failed to get first to a kick into in-goal area, but in the main the rugby was played in the Crusaders half of the field without ever really looking like St Helens would breach the home sides defence. As the half time hooter approached we witnessed the rare rugby league spectacle of a contested scrum as St Helens successfully pushed the home side off the ball as they were seemingly counting down to half time. Fortunately for the home side, Saints were unable to capitalise on this tactic. Half time came with the sides matched at nil-nil but with the Crusaders having by far the higher tackle count; would this go against them in the second half? Crusaders started the second half strongly and probably had their best spell of possession in the opening minutes. However about fifteen minutes into the half, the visitors punished the home side, for whom some of the players were visibly tiring, when they took the ball left on the fifth tackle on the home sides goal line. After some deft handling, the left wing Tom Armstrong touched down near the sideline leaving a kick for the extra two points that proved to be beyond Sean Long. The second half followed the attritional pattern of the first and the defences of both sides largely held firm although it appeared that Saints had doubled the lead when they seemed to get over on the left right on the final hooter though the ‘score' was chalked off by the referee, for what appeared to be a faulty grounding. Final score four nil to the visitors! From a St Helens point of view, some of their handling and passing was a little sloppy, though whether this was a lack of respect for the home side, the weather conditions or the defensive pressure was hard to tell.
Saint Helens RLFC are one of the aristocrats of the rugby league world. Founded in 1873 they are one of the original members of the clubs that formed the breakaway northern union in 1895 from which the modern game has developed. In the modern era they have won the Carnegie Challenge Cup Trophy three years in a row and the League Leaders Shield four years in a row; the current squad boasts 10 current or past GB international players along with many antipodean internationals, they are truly a great club. Whilst being a century club in outlook they have remained true to their roots and when Wakefield Trinity turned themselves into the Wildcats and Bradford Northern metamorphosed into the Bradford Bulls then Saint Helens turned themselves into, well, Saint Helens!
Was it a fair result? Well there is no doubt that the best team on the night won. Crusaders defended tenaciously which augers well for the rest of the season, but over 80 minutes they rarely threatened the St Helens line; possibly the missing Jace Van Dijk would have added a little more guile to the point of attack and overall, this is definitely another big step forward for the Crusaders.
Man of the Match? Hard one to call given the superiority of the defences, but Matty Smith, ironically a Saint on loan, was probably the pick of the Crusaders going forward and Sean Long was at the heart of much of St. Helens' good work.
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The score looks like a football result but this is not a reflection of what really happened on the pitch.
I think the lowest score I ever played in was a three nil but as you say, a four nil is pretty rare. On further reflection, had we defended like that we would have taken the points off Salford and possibly even Hull. There is much better to come.........
I can remember about 20 years ago ther being a 0-0 involvingI think Doncaster..... Or am I wrong?