{"id":362415,"date":"2026-04-03T20:50:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T20:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/362415\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T20:50:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T20:50:10","slug":"crusaders-farewell-home-ground-with-11-try-demolition-of-drua","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/362415\/","title":{"rendered":"Crusaders farewell home ground with 11-try demolition of Drua"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hooker Codie Taylor bagged four of the Crusaders’ 11 tries as they farewelled their Addington stadium venue with an emotional and resounding 69-26 defeat of Fijian Drua.<\/p>\n

Taylor was the star in his 150th appearance as the Super Rugby Pacific powerhouses notched a 100th win at the stadium that was hastily erected in 2012 in the wake of the previous year’s devastating earthquake.<\/p>\n

Fourteen seasons later, the Crusaders drew the curtain down on an unfashionable venue which was their home base during a period of outstanding success. They secured eight titles – seven of them overseen during Scott Robertson’s dynasty as coach.<\/p>\n

The team will now move to the newly-finished Te Kaha Stadium later this month on a high, unfurling a brilliant brand of rugby to see off the outmatched Drua.<\/p>\n

They scored five tries in the first 31 minutes to essentially seal the outcome, with Taylor crossing twice from lineout drives and wing Sevu Reece bagging an early double.<\/p>\n

\"Codie<\/p>\n

Codie Taylor of the Crusaders scores a try during the Super Rugby Pacific match – Crusaders Vs Fiji Drua at the last game at Apollo Projects Stadium, New Zealand, April 3 2026. (Source: Photosport)<\/p>\n

Fellow-wing Chay Fihaki also finished the match with a brace while first-five Taha Kemara slotted seven conversions.<\/p>\n

Taylor doubled his tally to four tries early in the second half – extending his career record to 53, the most by any forward in Super Rugby.<\/p>\n

The All Blacks veteran was replaced to a rousing reception shortly afterwards.<\/p>\n

For the Fijian visitors, powerful No.8 Elia Canakaivata bagged a double as they produced a more competitive display in the second half.<\/p>\n

It was a third straight win for the Crusaders, whose 4-3 record lifts them to fourth on the standings ahead of matches across the Tasman against the Reds and Force.<\/p>\n

rnz.co.nz<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hooker Codie Taylor bagged four of the Crusaders’ 11 tries as they farewelled their Addington stadium venue with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":362416,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[158,56380,111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-362415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-christchurch-canterbury","tag-crusaders","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362415\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}