2011 Super Rugby Final
| Event | 2011 Super Rugby season | ||||||
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| Date | 9 July 2011 | ||||||
| Venue | Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane | ||||||
| Referee | Bryce Lawrence (New Zealand) | ||||||
| Attendance | 52,113 | ||||||
The 2011 Super Rugby Final, was played between the Queensland Reds from Australia and the Crusaders from New Zealand on 9 July 2011. It was the 16th final in the Super Rugby competition's history and the first under the new 15-team format. The Reds had qualified in first place after the regular competition rounds, while the Crusaders qualified in third. The Reds went straight to the semi-final, where they beat New Zealand team the Blues. The Crusaders hosted a qualifying final in Nelson beating the Sharks, and then travelled to Cape Town and beat the Stormers in the other semi-final. As the Reds had qualified higher, the final was hosted in Brisbane at Suncorp Stadium.
The Crusaders went into the final as favourites, despite playing away from home and having travelled across many time-zones to reach the final. This was partly due to their impressive record, reaching ten finals in fourteen years and winning the Super Rugby championship seven times. The match was scoreless in the opening half hour with strong defence shown by both sides, but a try to Dan Carter gave the Crusaders an early lead. The Reds stayed in the game through two penalty kicks from Quade Cooper and went into half-time trailing by 6–7.
The match opened up late in the game as fatigue took its toll on the defence from both sides. Carter kicked a penalty goal in the 49th minute to take the Crusaders to a four-point lead. The Reds hit back through a try to winger Digby Ioane. The conversion from Cooper took it to 13–10 before Carter tied the score with a 45-metre penalty kick in the 56th minute. With the score locked at 13–13, Reds scrum-half Will Genia broke the deadlock with a solo 30 metre run for the standout try of the match. The Reds held on to claim the title, scoring two tries to the Crusaders' one, with the final score at 18–13.
The 2011 Super Rugby championship involved fifteen teams, five each from South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. The 2011 season was the 16th year of the competition, and the first in the new 15 team format (12 teams competed between 1996 and 2005, before increasing to 14 between 2006 and 2010). The 2011 competition began on 18 February with the regular competition rounds consisting of 120 matches over twenty one weeks. Each team played teams from their own country twice (home and away) and four teams from each of the other two countries once (two at home and two away). The top six teams would advance to the finals.
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