Two tries from loose forward Ethan Blackadder have helped the misfiring Crusaders put away the Rebels 42-17 at Super Rugby Pacific's 'Super Round' in Melbourne.
After suffering a historic defeat to the Blues last weekend, the southern powerhouse misfired for much of the opening 40 minutes, but exploded out of the halftime break to pile on four unanswered converted tries and 28 points to end the home team's hopes of a massive upset.
With first-five Richie Mo'unga back near his best, and Argentinian flanker Pablo Matera and explosive Leicester Fainga'anuku dominant with ball in hand, the Crusaders simply switched to a higher gear that the Rebels could not match, especially after losing Wallabies first-five Matt To'omua to a head injury early.
But the visitors needed almost quarter of the match to record their first points - and only points of the first half - with No.8 Cullen Grace looming in support of Mo'unga for the opening try.
The Crusaders showed their explosive ability on other occasions, but repeatedly let themselves down by handling errors or infringements. Fainga'anuku had an early try disallowed, when referee Brendon Pickerill found a forward pass from Matera in the build-up.
Rebels fullback Reece Hodge kicked a long-range penalty just before the break to give his side a sniff of victory, if they could continue to harass their opponents off their stride. They couldn't.
After the interval, the Crusaders kept the ball in hand longer and moved a higher speed, with Blackadder scoring consecutively for his try double.
"We knew there were a lot of opportunities and the boys got a bit excited," reflected Mo'unga. "We weren't clinical and we left a few out there, but we're happy with the way the boys brought it back.
"We talked about just simplifying things - we had a lot of offloads that were 50/50s, but we were pushing them anyway, so we were very simple in the second half and it showed."
The results leaves the Crusaders in third place on the Super Rugby Pacific points table, three points behind the Blues and two behind the Brumbies, but now three clear of fourth-placed Reds, after their loss to the Hurricanes. They face the Waratahs next Saturday.
Crusaders 42 (Grace, Hall, Fainga'anuku, Williams & Blackadder 2 tries, Mo'unga 5 conversions, Burke conversion) Rebels 17 (Hodge & Phillip tries, Hodge penalty & 2 conversions)
