Crusaders outclass Waratahs to open One New Zealand Stadium with key victory

Friday, 24 April 2026

At One New Zealand Stadium, Christchurch: Crusaders 35 (Dallas McLeod tries 11min, 56min, Codie Taylor try 39min, Leicester Fainga’anuku try 49min, Macca Springer try 68min; Taha Kemara 3 con, Rivez Reihana con) Waratahs 20 (Sid Harvey try 35min, Teddy Wilson try 65min; Harvey 2 pen, 2 con). HT: 14-13

Yellow cards: Miles Amatosero (Waratahs), Ioane Moananu (Waratahs), David Havili (Crusaders)

A new era. And a much-needed Crusaders victory.

The red and blacks christened One New Zealand Stadium with a 35-20 win over the Waratahs on Friday night, giving the sold-out crowd of 25,000 plenty to cheer about along the way.

Sure, they were far from perfect on debut under the roof of the magnificent inner-city arena, but the injury-hit defending champions proved too good on the milestone night for the Garden City.

They outscored the Waratahs five tries to two, finally winning a game without injured fullback Will Jordan.

It ensured the Crusaders weren’t swept by Australian opposition for the first time in history, and was a crunch result in terms of their playoff hopes as they bagged a bonus point and moved to 5-5.

Their spluttering form was a big talking point ahead of the game, but it paled in comparison to all the talk regarding the long-awaited opening of their flashy new stadium.

Indeed, anything but a Crusaders victory would have been hard to fathom for the locals, who filled the stadium and surrounding bars to start the Super Round.

Those worried the Waratahs might poop on their party would have been anxious when the Waratahs led for chunks of the first half, and caused the hosts problems with their combative and well-organised defence.

The Crusaders, who copped one of three yellow cards in what was a scrappy affair, also conceded a soft try to Teddy Wilson to allow the Waratahs to pull to within eight points with 14 minutes to play.

But wing Macca Springer promptly allowed the punters to kick back and relax a little when he ran in a classy try, shutting the door on the the visitors’ hopes.

“It was scratchy, but I thought we showed a lot of heart, and the forward pack really stepped up tonight and we asked them to do that. Physicality was there, at times we weren’t too accurate, but we got what we wanted - five points,” captain David Havili said.

Playing in the No 7 jersey for the first time in his career, utility back Leicester Fainga’anuku had a big say in the fixture.

He started by conceding a breakdown penalty, and soon made a handling error. But he was a menace with ball in hand, carrying with venom around the fringes and scoring a smash-mouth try.

“There’s a lot of superlatives. He did everything we asked of him, plus more. And he’s such a competitive man, and we knew he had a skill set to do the job,” head coach Rob Penney said.

It was Dallas McLeod who scored the first try at the new venue, the makeshift winger going over out wide 11 minutes into the match he wasn’t down to start.

McLeod was only on the park after Sevu Reece was ruled out with illness, elevating him to the right wing from the bench, a move which also promoted the uncapped Maloni Kunawave into the reserves.

Down 6-0 after a couple of Sid Harvey penalties, McLeod took a questionable pass from fullback Johnny McNicholl and went over, delighting the punters who had been on edge as the visitors controlled early proceedings.

And McLeod thought he had another later in the half, only for his apparent five-pointer to be scratched after the TMO deemed captain David Havili obstructed a defender.

The Crusaders didn’t have a case to argue, and were soon collecting their thoughts under their own sticks after the Waratahs, on the back of a series of bombs, went down the other end and scored a peach.

That was courtesy of pivot Jack Debreczeni unleashing a delightful cross-field kick for wing Harvey to collect and score out wide.

Having slotted two penalty goals, it made it Harvey 13, Crusaders 7 with five minutes remaining in the half, further adding to the tension under the roof.

But the Crusaders made sure the punters had something to cheer about before local musician Scribe entertained them at halftime.

That was via Codie Taylor smashing over via rolling maul, giving the Crusaders a 14-13 lead.

They kicked on from there, with loose forward Dom Gardiner, whose smooth pass was key in McLeod’s second try - a weaving run to finish off a sweeping movement - one of their stand out players.

But the Crusaders will know they need to be a heck of a lot sharper when they return to their home venue in a fortnight to host the Blues.