Crusaders Super rugby captain Sam Whitelock says they did not panic in their match against the Waratahs – even when they were 29 points behind.
The Crusaders clawed their way back from being four tries behind against the Waratahs to win the match 31-29 in Christchurch.
The Waratahs did all of the scoring in the first quarter of the contest but as soon as the Crusaders changed how they were playing they did all of the scoring and kept the Australians from scoring.
Whitelock said that while it was obvious their opening game plan didnt work he wasn’t sure what went wrong but they were not panicked by falling behind as the did.
“We gave them the ball back early and they really punished us because of it. Once we chopped that it started to turn in our favour,” Whitelock said after the match..
“But we were nice and calm out there. We stuck to what we knew would work and came over the top at the end.”
Waratahs captain Michael Hooper blamed poor discipline which “hurt us. Two yellow cards.”
“It’s hard to beat these guys with 14 men,” said Hooper.
The Crusaders victory was their 9th in 2018 from 11 matches and the Waratahs fourth loss from ten matches.
