South Africa`s Cheetahs completed a hat-trick of Super Rugby wins for the 1st time by shocking the Crusaders 33-20 at Free State Stadium on Saturday.
The Bloemfontein-based franchise have been among the also-rans of the southern hemisphere championship for various seasons, but a mid-season recovery also claimed the scalps of the Brumbies and Lions.
The Cheetahs turned around a 17-16 half-time deficit to overlook the 2nd half and owed their triumph to heroic defence and 23 points from young fly-half Sias Ebersohn, who missed only one of eight kicks at goal.
It did not assist the national team that injury-prone Springbok flanker Heinrich Brussouw had to get off with a hamstring strain midway through the opening half, but peroxide blond Kabamba Floors proved a superb replacement.
Crusaders were hit by injuries with leading try scorer Sean Maitland among the absentees, but the Christchurch-based outfit welcomed back their most famous stars, five-eighth Dan Carter and flanker and captain Richie McCaw.
Carter contributed 12 points before being replaced by Matthew Berquist 12 minutes into the back half while McCaw was always involved in the forward exchanges as he made only his third appearance of the season.
"It was a heavy day for Cheetahs rugby. We have been done some hard times so all reference to the guys and our coaches," said exhausted hooker and captain Adriaan Strauss.
"Defence is an orbit where we have improved a lot although we did give Crusaders a few easy gaps. Although we had a 13-point lead I didn`t feel convinced of victory until the last minute."
McCaw said: "We spent too much time at the untimely end of the area and made mistakes. Lacking some players through injury is no excuse as this affects all teams. Consistency is the key to Super success and we want to receive it."
Victory left Cheetahs in mid-table with 29 points - 11 fewer than the NSW Waratahs team occupying the last play-off place - while Crusaders stayed third, six points adrift of leaders Queensland Reds.
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2010 AAP
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