Live coverage has concluded
Full time - Blues 27 Crusaders 43
Crusaders 43 (Reece, Taylor, Mo'unga, Goodhue tries, Mo'unga 4con, 5pen) bt
Blues 27 (Eklund x2, Sotutu, Gibson tries, Black con, pen, Plummer con) HT Crusaders 17-8
Fulltime - Drummond knocks the ball into touch to end the game. Crusaders too good and too clinical.
77mins - Try Crusaders - Sevu Reece: Turnover by the Bluess deep in Crusaders territory and the red and black machine breaks out. Eventually Mo'unga fires a wide pass out to Reece who runs in to score. CRU 43-27
73mins - Yellow Card Blues: Ofa Tuungafasi - Scott Barrett wins a turnover for the Crusaders. Tungafasi clears him out and makes contach with the chin - after much TMO debate the opt for a yellow card.
72mins - Try Blues: Hoskins Sotutu - That's the try of the match. Heam and Robinson combine down the right hand side and Robinson throws a brilliant pass off as he's falling to Sotutu who busts through Jordan to score. CRU 36-27
70mins - Try Crusaders: Richie Mo'unga - Blues defend the lineout well. Drummond releases the ball to Mo'unga who stutter steps past Eklund and runs in to score. He converts his own try. CRU 36-20
69mins - Crusaders lineout 5m. This is the game right here.
66mins - Try Blues: Kurt Eklund - Great lineout drive gets the Blues to within 5m..... through the phases they go and eventually Eklund dives over in the corner. Black can't convert. CRU 29-20
64mins - Penalty for the Blues on halfway. Black kicks for touch and his side will have a lineout from the Crusaders 22.
60mins - Penalty goal Crusaders - 7/7 for Mo'unga. CRU 29-15
59mins - Another Crusaders penalty. Akira pinged for slowing the ball down at the ruck. Mo'unga will slot this.
58mins - All Crusaders now. They have gone up a gear. Lineout 22m out from the Blues line.
57mins - Havilli puts Jordan in a hole and the Crusaders are away. Reece down the right hand side but Clark pulls off a great tackle to shut that down.
55mins - Penalty goal Crusaders - Mo'unga drills another one. CRU 26-15
54mins - Relentless from the Crusaders. Offside play from the Blues again and Mo'unga will have another shot.
52mins - Peanlty goal Crusaders - Mo'unga nails it easily. CRU 23-15
51mins - Crusaders penalty in front - 30m out. Good, professional play from the Crusaders to earn that.
48mins - Try Blues - Kurt Eklund - Brilliant work from the forwards. Ball comes off the top to Akira Ioane..... three phases later and he makes a storming run and almost gets there. Eklund scoops up the ball and crashes over. CRU 20-15
46mins - Blues breakout through Heem and Choat and the flanker is pulled down 10m out. Crusaders commit a breakdown infringement and the Blues have a lineout 5m out.
45mins - Blues lineout midway their own 10m line and 22 for the Blues
44mins - Penalty goal Crusaders - Mo'unga makes no mistake. CRU 20-8
43mins - Early penalty for the Crusaders. Half the Blues backline offside at times. Mo'unga will add the three here.
41mins - Lineout on the 10m line for the Crusaders.
Second-half - Mo'unga gets the game back underway. Adrian Choat replaces Blake Gibson at openside. Gibson has concussion.
4:25pm - The Crusaders showed why they are so good in the second half of the first 40mins. It was all Blues to open, but they couldn't strike back-to-back and the Crusaders made them pay. Their only concern is the scrum - Joe Moody is getting an education from Nepo Laulala - he was embarrassed at times in the first spell. But the red and black pack has been clinical at lineout time and that's where their two tries have come from.
Halftime - Mo'unga finds touch and that's the first half in the books.
39mins - Heem knocks the ball on on halfway and the Crusaders will have a scrum on halfway.
39mins - Defensive penalty for the Blues. Whitelock in from the side and the Blues have a lineout on halfway.
37mins - Ruru clears to the 22. Nice kick under pressure.
36mins - Lineout for the Blues 5m from their own line.
35mins - Penalty for the Crusaders. Taylor gets over the ball and wins the turnover. Mo'unga doesn't find touch with the kick and the Blues clear to over halfway.
32mins - Try Crusaders: Codie Taylor - Classic Crusaders. Whitelock pulls down the ball and the drive is on - Taylor at the back has the ball and crashes over. Mo'unga converts. CRU 17-8
30mins - Rieko Ioane darts upfield through some weak defence, but Taylor's ankle tack gets him. Akira with a barnstorming run gets in to the Crusaders 22 but he loses the ball forward - Jordan breaks out for the Crusaders and eventually they earn a penalty. They have a lineout 5m.
27mins - Penalty goal Crusaders - No mistake made. CRU 10-8
26mins - Penalty right in front of the sticks for the Crusaders and Mo'unga should slot this.
25mins - Midfield penalty for the Crusaders. Goodhue pinged for a high shot. Lineout 15m out from the Blues line.
24mins - Jack Goodhue wins a turnover for the Crusaders - penalty awarded and the Crusaders are off the hook. Lineout on their own 22.
21mins - Penalty for the Blues - Sotutu wins it with great work at the ruck. Lineout for the Blues just outside the Crusaders 22.
19mins - Try Blues: Blake Gibson - Crusaders play breaks down in midfield and the Blues break out. Mo'unga saves a try with a great tackle on Heem. Ball shifts left and Clark finds Gibson out wide - try is scored but that last pass look forward. C-aptain's challenge from Barrett. Under TMO the try is awarded and the right call was made - that was a fair pass. BLU 8-7
16mins - Hodgman is pinged for angle entry and the Crusaders are off the hook.
15mins - Another huge scrum from the Blues - the count is 7-1 now - another scrum 5m. The Crusaders front row is under a warning. Nepo Laulala is making mince meat of Joe Moody.
14mins - The Crusaders win a penalty but it's reversed after Taylor slaps Laulala in the face. Stupid play from the All Blacks hooker. Give yourself an uppercut mate. Blues scrum 5m.
13mins - The Blues decimate the Crusaders scrum so we are under advantage. Clark is well tackled out wide and we come back to the penalty. Another scrum 5m for the Blues.
11mins - The Crusaders make a mess of the kick-off and the Blues are within inches .... Ruru to Sotutu but a great tackle from Grace stops that. Penalty Blues - 5m scrum.
10mins - Try Crusaders: Jack Goodhue - Lineout drive is well defended. Taylor breaks off the back of the maul. Hall grubbers for Goodhue who beats Akikira Ioane to the ball for the opening try. CRU 7-3
9mins - Lineout for the Crusaders 10m out after an obstruction penalty on halfway against the Blues.
8mins - Penalty for the Blues. Reece done for slowing down the ball. Lineout Blues on halfway.
7mins - Penalty goal Blues: Otere Black makes no mistake from in front. BLU 3-0
6mins - Penalty for the Blues on the 22. Grace pinged for not rolling away and Black will have a shot at goal.
4mins - Strong scrum from the Blues and Alalatoa is pinged for pulling it down. Blues lineout 10m out.
2mins - Crusaders scrum just inside their own half. Long period of play ends with a knock-on from Perofeta. Laulala made a nice break in the midfield just before that.
Kick-off - Black goes long to Jordan who punches the ball into touch - lineout Blues on halfway.
3:34pm - Patrick Tuipolotu leads out the Blues - Paul Williams is the referee - eek.
3:32pm - Bryn Hall leads out the Crusaders - his 100th Super Rugby appearance.
3:26pm - Kick-off less than 10 minutes away now.
3:23pm - No late changes - teams are as advertised and raring to go.
3:06pm - The Crusaders have a 100 percent win rate on the road in Super Rugby Aotearoa and haven't lost at Eden Park since 2014.
3:02pm - It's quite cold and overcast in Auckland today, but doesn't look like rain will play a part.
Good afternoon folks and welcome to Newshub's live updates of the top-of-the-table Super Rugby Aotearoa clash between the competition's only two unbeaten teams.
The Blues host the Crusaders from Eden Park in Auckland, in the first of what could be three big matches between the franchises this season.
The home side are 2-0 to start their campaign, while the defending champions sit at 3-0.
All the live action kicks off from 3:30pm.
TAB betting odds:
Crusaders - $1.61, Blues $2.20
Line-ups:
Blues: 1-Alex Hodgman, 2-Luteru Tolai, 3-Nepo Laulala, 4-Patrick Tuipulotu (c), 5-Josh Goodhue 6-Akira Ioane, 7-Blake Gibson, 8-Hoskins Sotutu, 9-Jonathan Ruru, 10-Otere Black, 11-Caleb Clarke, 12-Harry Plummer, 13-Rieko Ioane, 14-Bryce Heem, 15-Stephen Perofeta
Reserves: 16-Kurt Eklund, 17-Karl Tu'inukuafe, 18-Ofa Tuungafasi, 19-Gerard Cowley-Tuioti, 20-Tom Robinson, 21-Adrian Choat, 22-Finley Christie, 23-TJ Faiane
Crusaders: 1-Joe Moody, 2-Codie Taylor, 3-Michael Alaalatoa, 4-Scott Barrett (c), 5-Samuel Whitelock, 6-Ethan Blackadder 7-Sione Havili Talitui, 8-Cullen Grace, 9-Bryn Hall, 10-Richie Mo'unga, 11-Leicester Fainga’anuku, 12-David Havili, 13-Jack Goodhue, 14-Sevu Reece, 15-Will Jordan
Reserves: 16-Brodie McAlister, 17-George Bower, 18-Oliver Jager 19-Mitchell Dunshea, 20-Whetukamokamo Douglas, 21-Mitchell Drummond, 22-Fergus Burke, 23-Dallas McLeod
