Australian Hooker Shown a Red Card on his Crusaders debut

The defending champion Crusaders moved to the top of the New Zealand Conference with a 49-14 away win over the Sunwolves in round 7 of Super Rugby.

The Crusaders opened the scoring with a try midway through the first half, but the Sunwolves hit back 10 minutes later to level things up. The Crusaders responded with their second score to take a 14-7 lead into the halftime break. The Crusaders added a third try at the start of the second half, but the Sunwolves again hit back with their second try to trail 21-14 55 minutes in. Two quick tries for the Crusaders saw them take control at 35-14.

The Crusaders then picked up a red card and a yellow card a couple of minutes later saw them reduced to 13 players. Replacement hooker Hugh Roach was shown a straight red card for an elbow to the face of a Sunwolves player.

Roach enjoyed stints at the Rebels, Waratahs and Western Force but left Australia in 2019 to join the Tasman Mako and was called into the Crusaders squad as injury cover.

It's fair to say that he won't be happy with his debut for the defending Super Rugby champions. 

Despite their numerical disadvantage, the Crusaders showed their class to cross for a further two tries in the final 5 minutes.