James O’Connor’s push to take on the British and Irish Lions took another step forward on Friday night after kicking the Crusaders to an 82nd minute win over North Island rivals, the Blues, in Christchurch.
After Fletcher Newell and the Crusaders pack won a scrum penalty in the 81st minute with the scores locked up at 22-22, O’Connor stepped up in the teeming rain and banged over the penalty from 39 metres out to hand the home side an important 25-22 win.
“Once it went through, it felt pretty good,” a beaming O’Connor said in the seconds after the ice cool moment.
“Look, just back to practice, you’ve got to block everything else out, take it step-by-step and keep the mind clear.
“When the boys were scrumming I could feel something coming.”
O’Connor’s perfect strike was the latest match-winning effort from the 34-year-old recruit, who has regularly steered the Crusaders to victory after being used as a finisher from Rob Penney.
“I’m really enjoying this role,” he said.
“Taha [Kemara] setting the tempo really well, putting us in the right areas of the field and my job is to come on with about 5-10 minutes to go and do that.”
James O’Connor sunk the Blues with an 82nd minute match-winning penalty for the Crusaders in Christchurch on Good Friday. (Photo by Joe Allison/Getty Images)
The penalty was O’Connor’s second straight penalty, having come on after 68 minutes and banged over his first three-pointer in the 72nd minute.
O’Connor was mobbed by his teammates after the clutch kick, with the Blues left to rue the decision to run the ball out of their half as Rieko Ioane knocked on in the wet.
“It’s incredible,” O’Connor described his move across the ditch.
“The home support has been awesome. I’ve loved it, the journey’s been amazing.”
The match-winning moment came less than a week after former Wallaby Morgan Turinui had said O’Connor was giving national selectors something to think about following his strong start to the season.
“James O’Connor has gone from being asked whether he’d be interested in corporate hospitality gigs during the Lions series to high-performance, high-echelon people in Australian rugby considering him in the broader squad,” Turinui said on Stan’s Between two Posts podcast.
“He’s been excellent.”
Asked whether he though O’Connor was in the mix to start for the Wallabies, Turinui said the versatile back’s experience was something that could be useful for a squad that has little big-match experience.
“Now, I’m not talking about starting XV but this is in camp with the Wallabies for a month preparing to win a Lions series, it’s a useful guy to have there that knows the pitfalls of what happened 12 years ago,” he said.
“He’s matured, he has grown up, he’s a man now and the little highlight there of putting his body on the line in that little gap, I think that was a great little moment for him, just to show it as well.”
O’Connor has never shied away from wanting another chance to sink the Lions, having famously worn the No.10 jersey in 2013 under Robbie Deans. The Lions won the series 2-1.
“That (playing for the Crusaders) was probably the biggest driver but that does play into the fact that I do want to play for the Wallabies in that Lions series,” O’Connor told the GBRANZ podcast in February.
“I am very aware the other guys have got a nod first, but I’m just putting that question out there. If I’m playing well enough and I’m doing a job, why can’t I be in the question still?”
On a horrible evening for rugby, the Crusaders took a 14-7 lead into half-time after David Havili sent Will Jordan over in stoppage time with a sublime pass.
The home side looked like flexing their muscles when Christian Lio-Willie scored in the 44th minute.
But the visitors came storming back after finally hanging onto the ball, with Hoskins Sotutu scoring in the 58th minute before AJ Lam scored five minutes later after crashing over out wide following the No.8’s incredible no-look, reverse flick pass from the base of the ruck helped level the score.
Beauden Barrett’s first penalty of the night gave the Blues a 22-19 lead after 68 minutes, but O’Connor then stepped up to land two penalties in quick succession to lead the Crusaders to a momentum-building win.
“James O’Connor, hey?” said Havili, who didn’t feature in the second half after Penney decided not to risk his star back’s Achilles.
“We’ve found our DNA again, especially at home. We played here at the start of the year and didn’t really get the performance we wanted but we came out tonight and the boys really stepped up.”
Blues skipper Patrick Tuipulotu rued letting the Crusaders back into the fight.
“It’s a game of fine margins, and we can be proud of our effort,” the second-rower said.
“We had to be physical and the Crusaders did that. We didn’t capitalise and we left it in the hands of the ref a few times, and even with that last penalty.”
The win saw the Crusaders extend their lead at the top of the Super Rugby standings on 32 points, five points ahead of the Chiefs who will play the Highlanders on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the eighth-place Blues are three points out of the top six on 17 points.
