A dominant evening at scrum time and a late flurry of tries has given the Crusaders enough of a platform to grind out an otherwise nervy 37-15 win over the Reds in Christchurch.
A week after their unconvincing 28-15 win over the same opposition, the Crusaders looked uncharacteristically tense on a cold Christchurch night as handling errors stunted many of their attack attempts for most of the contest, despite what the final scoreline suggests.
Thankfully for the hosts, the errors didn't cost them too heavily on the scoreboard as their defence continued to hold against a Queensland outfit unable to find a chink in the armour unless they were counter-attacking.
One such attack did hurt though with the reds scoring their only try of the first half when Suliasi Vunivalu finished off a move down the right wing off a poor lineout attempt on halfway from the Crusaders.
But aside from that, the Crusaders held the majority of possession and territory in the opening 40 minutes. The only issue was they weren't converting on it.
Aside from their opening try - a movement finished off by Will Jordan after a strong run from Sevu Reece - the Crusaders struggled to make their final passes stick, although that often meant they'd go to the one area of the game they were dominating; the scrum.
The Queensland pack struggled significantly to hold their own against the Crusaders' scrum. So much so that coach Brad Thorn - a former member of that ever-dominant unit - resorted to a front-row substitution in the 34th minute to try and find a solution.
It didn't help though with the Reds conceding multiple penalties at the scrum which allowed the Crusaders to at least extend their lead in threes through Mo'unga's boot.
They almost looked to have pushed that lead out further on the stroke of halftime with Leicester Fainga'anuku diving over to score but replays showed another painful knock-on in the build-up to the try and left the scoreboard at 16-8 heading into the break.
A chat at halftime appeared to help the Reds settle down as they managed to strike with Filipo Daugunu just two minutes into the second half after pulling off a rare 50-22 kick from a successful scrum.
Another mistake - a free intercept in the midfield - allowed the Reds to launch another counter-attack soon after and although they weren't able to convert with Lawson Creighton's penalty attempt 40m out missing, nerves on the field were starting to seep into the stands with the Christchurch faithful.
The pressure eased heading into the final quarter of the match though as again the Crusaders scrum earned another penalty inside the Reds' 22, allowing a quick-thinking Richie Mo'unga to take a quick tap and attack the line.
Three phases later, the All Blacks first-five was in and following his conversion, the lead was back out to eight points.
The crowd found their voice again with the Crusaders' next try seven minutes later as Jordan and Fainga'anuku combined down the left wing to spark a special attack for the hosts which resulted in Reece rounding off the the play with some brilliant individual finishing.
Tamaiti Williams then put the game out of question with another try in the 74th minute as the Reds' discipline put them further on the back foot and denied them any chance of getting back into the game.
A late George Bridge try was denied but it mattered little to the Christchurch fans as they began to sing "Sweet Caroline" and bang their feet in triumph in the closing moments of the decided contest.
One concern for Crusaders fans heading into the semi-finals as well as the All Blacks selectors will be the late departure of in-form loose forward Ethan Blackadder who appeared to pick up a serious arm injury.
Blackadder was visibly grimacing as he left the field, adding another issue for Scott Robertson to address at training next week.
Crusaders 37 [Will Jordan, Richie Mo'unga, Sevu Reece, Tamaiti Williams tries; Richie Mo'unga 4 con, 3 pen]
Reds 15 [Suliasi Vunivalu, Filipo Daugunu tries; Lawson Creighton 1 pen]
HT: 16-8
SHARE ME