Ben Smith 6/10: Was not able to threaten the way he normally does, mainly coming into the line and looking to put Poki and Gear away. Made a couple of uncharacteristic errors, including being stood up by a sublime Daniel Carter on defence. Still did okay though and broke a tackle to score the first try.
Kade Poki 6.5/10: Seemed to be lurking all night, securing loose ball on his wing and charging down a kick to put the Crusaders under pressure. Also made a couple of nice runs where he went forward.
Tamati Ellison 7/10: The most threatening of the backs, looked incisive running and threw a brilliant behind the back offload to set up Ben Smith for the first try. Made some good defensive reads and was reliable making his tackles.
Shaun Treeby 6/10: Played the first half and was reasonably solid. Made some good tackles and looked to hit the ball up on attack.
Colin Slade 6/10: Mainly just distributed although he took the line on a couple of times. His goal kicking was not flash, but did well to get back and cover for Ma'a Nonu's charged kick to save a try at the start of the second half.
Fumiaki Tanaka 5.5/10: Passed well, including a very good long one to Ellison which enabled the first try to be scored. Missed a first up one-on-one tackle on Dan Carter though, which led to the Crusaders first try.
Mose Tuialii 6.5/10: Ran hard with ball in hand and got through his work on defence.
Elliot Dixon 7.5/10: Outstanding particularly when you consider he was playing out of position. Tackled hard all night and made lots of them, while also linking well a couple of times to make some good runs in the open.
Josh Bekhuis 6/10: Generally good on defence and was busy enough on attack. Got up and contested the opposition lineout well at times and was okay without being spectacular on the Highlanders lineouts.
Brad Thorn 6.5/10: Heavily involved in the tight, tackling hard and well, while also being the main tackler in a try saving effort on Sam Whitelock in the corner.
Ma'afu Fia 4.5/10: Was under all sorts of pressure from a second string Crusaders front row.
Andrew Hore 6/10: Good around the field including one very good tackle close to the line, but was not flash at set-piece time.
Tony Woodcock 4/10: Tried to be active around the field, making some good runs and made a few tackles. Unfortunately he also missed three tackles, which is way too many and one of these led directly to a try.
Bronson Murray 4/10: Missed the tackle which led to the Dan Carter try, threw a pass to a Crusader and gave up a scrum penalty. Not an ideal list of mistakes considering he was only on for 15 minutes.
Jake Parangatai (No Rating): Came on when the game was more or less gone. Got his hands on the ball a couple of times and hit it up.
TJ Ioane 7/10: Definitely made an impact in his 15 minutes, running strongly with one in particular standing out where he broke a couple of tackles and kept going.
Aaron Smith 6.5/10: Tried to spark something the whole second half, running dangerously and providing quick service. Loses half a mark for a missed tackle when covering on Daniel Carter's try.
Lima Sopoaga (No Rating): Mainly just distributed but made one good run. Did not really have much of a chance to make a huge impact, but certainly it was good to see him back out on the field.
Ma'a Nonu 3/10: Where to start? He was definitely trying hard, very hard. In 17 minutes he made six tackles, threw the pass which instigated the movement prior to Gear's try, drew the defenders to ensure the try was scored and put Ellison into a gap.
Perhaps he was trying too hard though, making a bad tip-tackle on Tom Marshall which saw him red carded, which came as a result of him trying to cover for a bad kick. Unfortunately he was no good to the team on the sideline. Also had a kick charged straight after coming on.
