CHRISTCHURCH Womens Jarrad Davis Jersey , New Zealand (AP)The Crusaders made a scratchy start to the defense of their Super Rugby title on Saturday while the Lions, the losing finalists last season, were also tested and overcame an early deficit to remain unbeaten after two games.The Crusaders weathered two yellow cards and relied on a disputed penalty try and two late intercepts to beat the Chiefs 45-23 in their all-New Zealand clash.The Chiefs led 20-19, against the run of play, after 56 minutes before the Crusaders began a concerted rally with a try to captain Sam Whitelock.The Lions were 10-0 down at home in Johannesburg to Argentina’s Jaguares, but responded with seven tries in a 47-27 win. Left wing Aphiwe Dyantyi continued his scintillating start to Super Rugby with two of those tries for the Lions after scoring on his debut last weekend.In other matches, the Bulls held on at home to edge the Hurricanes 21-19, the ACT Brumbies rallied from 19-8 down in the first half to beat the Japan-based Sunwolves 32-25 in Tokyo, and the New South Wales Waratahs scored a try in the final seconds to beat South Africa’s Stormers 34-27.A penalty try and yellow card awarded against the Chiefs in the 68th swung the match heavily in the Crusaders’ favor. Replacement back-rower Lachlan Boshier was deemed by referee Ben O’Keefe to have made a high tackle in preventing a try by Crusaders center Ryan Crotty.The Crusaders lost flyhalf Richie Mo’unga, for a professional foul, and prop Michael Alaalatoa, for a high tackle, to yellow cards in the first half.In an eventful contest between aspiring All Blacks flyhalves Mo’unga for the Crusaders and Damian McKenzie for the Chiefs, Mo’unga scored an early try after an opening try by Matt Todd to give the Crusaders a 12-0 lead. They scored again through back-rower Jordan Taufua while Mo’unga was in the sin-bin to take a commanding 19-3 advantage.The Chiefs hit back with tries to captain Sam Cane and winger Solomon Aliamano in the last seven minutes of the first half, the second try while Alaalatoa was in the bin for his tackle on McKenzie, to cut the lead to 19-17 at the break.They seized the lead, briefly Matthew Stafford Jersey White , with a penalty to McKenzie but Whitelock’s try set in motion the Crusaders’ revival.”The boys are blowing pretty hard,” Whitelock said. ”It’s pretty tough when you go down to 14 men. The best thing is the boys really stuck together. We figured out what we had to do and that resolve really got us through.”The Lions were down to a try by Emiliano Boffelli in the third minute, and a penalty, before finding their attacking edge at Ellis Park. Dyantyi, who was playing university rugby not long ago, was partly responsible for that with the opener for the Lions in the 27th. He went over again early in the second half and by that time the Lions were in control.The three-time champion Bulls, disappointing in recent seasons, pulled off a big opening win by squeezing past the Hurricanes with a late try by prop Pierre Schoeman, who settled a game where both sides scored three tries each.The Brumbies, Australian conference winners last season and playing under new coach Dan McKellar, led the Sunwolves with an early penalty to flyhalf Christian Leali’ifano, who played all 80 minutes as he embarked on his first Super Rugby season since he was diagnosed in remission from leukemia.Two tries to Hosea Saumaki and a try to Timothy Lafaele, answered by a try for the Brumbies by Lachlan McCaffrey, lifted the Sunwolves to 19-8. Lealiifano added the conversion to Kyle Godwin’s 35th-minute try to cut the Sunwolves’ lead to 19-15 at halftime.The Brumbies hit the front with a try to Tevita Kuridrani immediately after halftime and pulled ahead with a try to Josh Mann-Rea.The Sunwolves closed to five points at 27-22 before the Brumbies clinched their win with a try to fullback Tom Banks.Ned Hanigan’s late try gave the Waratahs their win over the Stormers. The Waratahs lost the lead five times in the match but clinched victory following a lineout steal from an overthrow after the final siren.A strong run from reserve back-rower Jed Holloway and passes from flyhalf Bernard Foley and replacement prop and debutant Harry Johnson-Holmes set up Hanigan, who crashed through two defenders to score in the corner.Monday Open Thread: September 10, 2018 Merry post-win Monday, everyone!Mondays are already awesome Nick Bellore Jersey White , but Mondays after a win are even better. So, what did y’all think of the game? I know it wasn’t perfect, the first game of the season never is, especially with a new OC and QB coming aboard, but I thought it was a pretty good overall performance by the purple & gold.Offense: The O line held up pretty well, and Cousins put up a solid performance; not spectacular, but solid, and free of major mistakes (except for the head-first slide, don’t do that again until the last day of the fully guaranteed contract, mmmmkayyyyyy?). I like how Cousins plays, I’ll never like the contract, but I like how he plays, and I feel much more confident I think you’ll see the offense improve as the season goes on, but for it being game one, I was satisfied with the offense’s performance yesterday.Defense: We’ve come to expect dominance, and although you probably wouldn’t categorize yesterday’s defensive performance as dominant, they played a solid game. One flaw that stood out was that they allowed guys to get wide open behind the secondary a lot more often than they should have. I’m not sure what the cause was Damon Harrison Jersey White , but I’m guessing Zimmer and Co. will find out, if they haven’t already. The Vikings were lucky with that one drop, and Grape.....Garp........Grapapoo.......the 49ers QB missed more than one wide open receiver for what would have likely been a long TD. Other than that, the defense didn’t have any glaring deficiencies, and Harrison Smith showed why he’s considered one of the best at his position. Wow, what a game. Oh, and I know some questioned the FO taking Mike Hughes in the first. It doesn’t seem so bad now, does it? He didn’t play a perfect game, but he played much better than most fans expected him to play, I was very happy with his performance. Sendejo had a nice night, even against the pass. I’ll be the first to admit that I thought the FO was wrong when they gave him an extension a couple years back, and I’ll be the first to admit that they were right & I was wrong, I’m happy to see him playing well.I’ll save the rest for the comments, but I’m happy with the team’s overall performance. Yes, I know there were mistakes, I’m not ignoring them, but I expect them to happen in the first game of the season. You expect mistakes in game one Womens Graham Glasgow Jersey , especially in the current era where there are fewer practices in the preseason. I also expect to see fewer and fewer as the season progresses. SKOL!Around the DN since our last open thread:Saxyprince posted Climbing The Podcast: Episode 107 [It’s Time].Chris, ,Ted, Eric, Dan Persons, Lucas Ailport, and Skelly 10; who all write for the DN, started a new feature called The Norse Reporters. Check it out.Dan Persons has your post-game wrap-up.Ted was here with the Stock Market Report: 49ers.Lucas Ailport points out the studs from yesterday’s game. just_rob has a place to talk about the Bears-Packers game. He wrote this before the game, I can’t wait to check out the comments as the game progressed. Vikings news from other sources and news from around the league:Over at Vikings.com, you can catch Coach Zimmer’s post-game locker room speech, and see him again as he addressed the media after the game, see Kirk Cousins talk with the media after getting his first win (with many more to come) as a Viking, and there is a ton more to sift through in the media vault.Adrian Peterson passed Jim Brown, and moved to 10th on the NFL all-time rushing yards list, and he also scored his 100th career touchdown, per NBC Sports. Sorry, that link is the latest I could find when I posted this Miles Killebrew Jersey , I’ll try to update.From NFL.com, catch up on all of the scores and highlights from week one.We come to today’s media selection:Ahhhhh, this is my favorite DN tradition, and this is the first time this season we get to play it after a real game. Strike up the band!!Again, we all know the rules, but in case someone is new:No discussion of politics or religionNo feeding of the trollsThis isn’t a male version of The View, so leave the gender hatred at the doorKeep the bad language to a minimum (using the spoiler tags, if you must)Speaking of which, if discussing a newer show or movie, please use spoiler tagsNo pictures that could get someone fired or in serious trouble with their employerIf you can’t disagree in a civil manner, feel free to go awayWhile navigating the open thread, just assume it’s sarcasmWith that, the beer light is on and the bar is open. Belly up and tie one on. Don’t forget to tip your waitress, and try the tiger meat