Fly-half Richie Mo’unga produced a man of the match performance as Crusaders beat Lions 37-18 to retain the Super Rugby title as they faced off at Christchurch on Saturday 4 morning.
The win saw the New Zealander’s bag the ninth Super Rugby. Mo’unga scored three penalties and four conversions in the clash which totals to 17 points while their tries were scored by Seta Tamanivalu, David Havili, Mitchell Drummond and Scott Barrett.
Cyle Brink and Malcolm Marx scored Lions tries as while Elton Jantjies scored one conversion and two penalties in the clash.
Darren Clayton@Dashman01Scott Robertson has got the moves #CRUvLIO #SuperRugbyFinal
Squads:
Crusaders: 15 David Havili, 14 Seta Tamanivalu, 13 Jack Goodhue, 12 Ryan Crotty, 11 George Bridge, 10 Richie Mo’unga, 9 Bryn Hall, 8 Kieran Read, 7 Matt Todd, 6 Heiden Bedwell-Curtis, 5 Sam Whitelock (c), 4 Scott Barrett, 3 Owen Franks, 2 Codie Taylor, 1 Joe Moody
Replacements: 16 Sam Anderson-Heather, 17 Tim Perry, 18 Michael Alaalatoa, 19 Luke Romano, 20 Pete Samu, 21 Mitchell Drummond, 22 Mitchell Hunt, 23 Braydon Ennor
Fox Sports Lab✔@FoxSportsLab
The most successful team in #SuperRugby history has won their 9th #SuperRugbyFinal going back to back for the 1st time since 2005-2006.
The 19 point win also its biggest grand final win!
Congratulations #Crusaders winning 37-18 over the Lions #CRUvLIO
Lions: 15 Andries Coetzee, 14 Ruan Combrinck, 13 Lionel Mapoe, 12 Harold Vorster, 11 Courtnall Skosan, 10 Elton Jantjies, 9 Ross Cronje, 8 Warren Whiteley (c), 7 Cyle Brink, 6 Kwagga Smith, 5 Franco Mostert, 4 Marvin Orie, 3 Ruan Dreyer, 2 Malcolm Marx, 1 Jacques van Rooyen
Replacements: 16 Corne Fourie, 17 Dylan Smith, 18 Johannes Jonker, 19 Lourens Erasmus, 20 Marnus Schoeman, 21 Dillon Smit, 22 Aphiwe Dyantyi, 23 Howard Mnis
Super Rugby is a professional men’s rugby union football competition in the Southern Hemisphere and Japan. Building on various Southern Hemisphere competitions dating back to the South Pacific Championship in 1986, with teams from a number of southern nations, Super Rugby started as the Super 12 in 1996 season with 12 teams from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
The name was changed to Super 14 with the addition of two teams for the 2006 season, and with expansion to 15 teams in the three countries for the 2011 season, the competition was rebranded as Super Rugby (with no number). By 2006, matches were being broadcast in 41 countries.
In 2016 two new teams, the Jaguares from Argentina and Sunwolves from Japan, joined the competition, playing in the newly separated African groups.
In 2018, the competition underwent yet another change in format, this time however dropping two teams (Cheetahs and Kings) from the South African conference, and one from the Australian conference (Western Force). This left the competition with 15 teams.
During the last season of the Super 12, Coast Design of Sydney was commissioned to design a new logo for the Super 14.The Super 14 logo broke away from the traditional shield formats, common to many sporting codes, and used Roman numerals (XIV), which is unique for sport in the region. The game’s dynamism and speed are suggested by the orbiting football which has three distinct stitches, a subtle reference to the three countries of the tournament.
The Super Rugby logo dispenses with numbers, featuring a large blue “S” with a white rugby ball in the centre and “SupeRugbY” below the “S”. The three stitches of the previous ball are retained.
Before the expansion to the Super 14, the Super 12 used a logo in the shape of a shield, which had the sponsors name at the top, and then the words “Rugby” and “Super 12”. The lower half of the logo used three different coloured stripes, green, black and gold, the respective colours of the national teams of South Africa, New Zealand and Australia.