Western Force welcomed the Crusaders at HBF Park in Perth earlier tonight in Round 12 of the 2022 Super Rugby Pacific. The home side briefly snatched the lead earlier on, before the Crusaders dominated the first-half at 8-18. They tried to catch up with another TRY from Fergus Lee-Warner not long after half-time, but the Saders are just too good with a 15-53 win.
It’s been a tough night in the office from the Western Force after a huge defeat on home soil v the Crusaders. They weren’t bad in the first half when the Force briefly snatched lead for a while at one point, thanks to Kyle Godwin’s cross-kick where Jake Strachan ran the ball in time for their opening TRY. Although, they’ve benefitted from a couple of winning penalties/advantages along the way. However, their lack of support & communication in the attack couldn’t keep the standard that the Crusaders set up tonight, which is too much to catch up where their defense was heavily exposed. They have a long trip now to Dunedin in New Zealand ahead of the Week 13 opener on Friday night v Highlanders.
And congratulations to the Crusaders on an easy win away from home after a shock defeat last week in Sydney v NSW Waratahs. Now they still need to work on some ill-discipline where they lost some penalties on a couple of occasions. They will need to be on their best if they want to beat the best Australian Super Rugby team next Friday night v ACT Brumbies in Canberra. But they’re just simply outstanding where the Crusaders took advantage of the Force’s lack of finishing opportunities, before they cashed in with plenty of hat-trick tries from Leicester Fainga’anuku & Will Jordan.