The 2008 Super 14 season started in February 2008 with pre-season matches held from mid-January. It finished on 31 May, when the
Crusaders
The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were in ...
won their seventh
Super Rugby
Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Building on various Southern Hem ...
title with a
20–12 victory over the
Waratahs in front of the Crusaders' home fans at
AMI Stadium. The 2008 season was the third of the expansion, which led to the name change to the Super 14. The schedule, which covered 3½ months, featured a total of 94 matches, with each team playing one full round robin against the 13 other teams, two semi-finals and a final. Every team received one bye over the 14 rounds.
Introduction of Experimental law variations
The 2008 competition is currently the highest level competition to trial any of the
International Rugby Board
World Rugby is the world governing body for the sport of rugby union. World Rugby organises the Rugby World Cup every four years, the sport's most recognised and most profitable competition. It also organises a number of other international rug ...
's (IRB)
Experimental law variations
The experimental law variations (ELVs) were a proposed set of amendments to the laws of rugby union. They were proposed by the sport's governing body, the International Rugby Board (IRB), and trialled games at Stellenbosch University in 2006. In ...
(ELVs). The laws had been trialled in various competitions in both the Northern and Southern Hemisphere. The highest level competition the laws had previously been introduced to was the
2007 Australian Rugby Championship. The introduction of the laws for the 2008 season was approved by the competition's governing body,
SANZAR
SANZAAR (South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and Argentina Rugby; previously known as SANZAR) is the body which oversees Super Rugby and The Rugby Championship competitions in rugby union. SANZAAR meets annually and is composed of the CEOs from ...
, at a meeting on 4 December 2007.
SANZAR decided not to adopt all the ELVs, and decided to adopt the following:
*The corner posts are moved so that they are outside the junction of the touchline and goal-line. A player will also not be in touch if they are touching the corner post unless they are also touching either the touchline, or ground over the touchline.
*A ball can be thrown backwards on a quick throw-in rather than having to be thrown straight.
*The offside line will now occur immediately once a tackle is made.
*At the breakdown the
Scrum-half (half-back) cannot be touched unless they are touching the ball.
*During a
scrum
Scrum may refer to:
Sport
* Scrum (rugby), a method of restarting play in rugby union and rugby league
** Scrum (rugby union), scrum in rugby union
* Scrum, an offensive melee formation in Japanese game Bo-taoshi
Media and popular culture
* M ...
, with the exception of forwards in the scrum, and each team's scrum-half, the offside line will now be 5 metres behind the hindmost foot of a scrum.
*With the exception of offside, not entering the breakdown through the gate, and foul-play, the punishment will be a free kick.
Table
Results
Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
Round 4
Round 5
Round 6
Round 7
Round 8
Round 9
Round 10
Round 11
Round 12
Round 13
Round 14
Finals
Semi finals
Grand final
The final of the 2008 Super 14 season took place on 31 May 2008 at
AMI Stadium in
Christchurch
Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...
,
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
. The match was hosted by the Crusaders who defeated the
New South Wales Waratahs
The New South Wales Waratahs ( or ;), referred to as the Waratahs, are an Australian professional rugby union team representing the majority of New South Wales in the Super Rugby competition. The Riverina and other southern parts of the state, ...
by 20 points to 12.
The match
;First half
The Crusaders scored the first points of the game when
fly-half
In the game of rugby union, there are 15 players on each team, comprising eight forwards (wearing jerseys numbered 1–8) and seven backs (numbered 9–15). In addition, there may be up to eight replacement players "on the bench", numbered 16– ...
Dan Carter
Daniel William Carter (born 5 March 1982) is a retired New Zealand rugby union player.
Carter played for Crusaders (Super Rugby) in New Zealand and played for New Zealand's national team, the All Blacks. He is the highest point scorer in ...
kicked a penalty in the fourth minute, giving the Crusaders a 3–0 lead.
The Waratahs scored their first points of the match when
Kurtley Beale
Kurtley James Beale (born 6 January 1989) is an Australian professional rugby union representative player who has made over 90 national representative appearances in a ten-year playing career at the world-class level. He is of Aboriginal desce ...
kicked the ball across field, and Waratah's
wing
A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is expres ...
er
Lachlan Turner
Lachlan 'Lachie' David Turner (born 11 May 1987) is an Australian professional rugby union player who retired at the end of 2018 season. In his usual position of wing. He has a strong kicking game, which allows him to also play at fullback.
...
caught the ball to score a
try
Try or TRY may refer to:
Music Albums
* ''Try!'', an album by the John Mayer Trio
* ''Try'' (Bebo Norman album) (2014) Songs
* "Try" (Blue Rodeo song) (1987)
* "Try" (Colbie Caillat song) (2014)
* "Try" (Nelly Furtado song) (2004)
* " Try (Ju ...
.
The attempted conversion by Beale was unsuccessful, leaving the Waratahs with a 5-3 lead.
The next score occurred in the 25th minute when Waratahs
flanker Phil Waugh
Phillip Waugh (born 22 September 1979) is a retired Australian rugby union footballer who played 136 matches in Super Rugby for the NSW Waratahs, and in 79 Test matches for the Wallabies. His usual position was openside flanker.
Rugby career
W ...
intercepted a pass from Dan Carter. Waugh passed to Turner who chipped the ball and then collected to score his second try. Beale's conversion was successful and the Waratahs extended their lead to 12–3.
Carter kicked a penalty in the 32nd minute to reduce the Waratahs lead to 12–6.
The final score before half time came in the 38th minute when Crusaders
No. 8 Mose Tuiali'i
Moses Moses Tuiali'i (born 25 March 1981) is a former New Zealand rugby union player. A Loose forward, Tuiali'i notably played for the Crusaders in Super Rugby between 2004 and 2008. He also played for the Blues in 2003 and later the Highland ...
scored in the right hand corner.
Carter's conversion was unsuccessful, and the half ended with the Waratahs leading by 12 points to 11.
;Second half
In the 46th minute the Crusaders took the lead again by 14 points to 12 via a Dan Carter penalty.
The Crusaders looked to have scored their second try in the 56th minute when
prop
A prop, formally known as (theatrical) property, is an object used on stage or screen by actors during a performance or screen production. In practical terms, a prop is considered to be anything movable or portable on a stage or a set, distinc ...
Wyatt Crockett
Wyatt William Vogels Crockett (born 24 January 1983) is a former New Zealand rugby union player. He played at prop for the Crusaders in Super Rugby, Canterbury and Tasman in the National Provincial Championship, and the New Zealand national team ...
landed on a loose ball in the Waratahs in-goal area, but play was taken back 60 metres after touch judge
Cobus Wessels reported that Crusaders lock
Brad Thorn had thrown a punch. The try was disallowed and the Crusaders penalised. Thorn was given a yellow card and sent to the sin bin for ten minutes.
Despite having an extra man for the next ten minutes, the Waratahs were unable to score,
and were further hampered by the loss of Kurtley Beale to injury. In the 70th minute Carter kicked a drop-goal to take the Crusaders lead to 17–12, and four minutes later kicked a penalty to further extend the lead to 20–12. With only minutes remaining Crusaders winger
Scott Hamilton dropped the ball only metres from the Waratahs try-line. The score remained at 20-12, and the Crusaders won their seventh Super rugby title.
Match details
Player statistics
Leading try scorers
Leading point scorers
Attendances
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Super
2008
File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...
2008 rugby union tournaments for clubs