This was a tough physical encounter against a much bigger Park side who also had some strong running backs particularly from full back and their pair of elusive Fijian centres. Nevertheless the Crusaders fought well and scored a creditable 36 points against Birkenhead Park's 48.

The first serious scoring opportunity fell to the Crusaders after 10 minutes when Park were guilty of an illegal tackle offering Matt Brookes a penalty chance from 40 yards but the ball inched just wide. The Crusaders continued to apply pressure in the Park half but Park broke away against the run of play to score a converted try after just 12 minutes. Park continued to press their physical advantage with a series of forward raids on the home line and scored again after just 5 minutes from a tap penalty, for not releasing, from 10 yards out in the corner. The conversion was unsuccessful.

The ever youthful Steve Hearn left the field for treatment and replacement Josh O'Neil finished off a fine attacking move from a driven penalty move in the Park 22 . - Score 5-12.

O'Neil himself suffered a serious knee injury just a few minutes later after a strong midfield gallop through heavy traffic.
At the 35 minute mark a ruck broke up and Connor Clayton was yellow carded for fighting an opponent who was seemingly ignored by the referee.

Park and the Crusaders exchanged tries at the end of a 45 minute first half producing a half time score of 12-17.

At the start of the second half the Crusaders defence was split open by a series of strong elusive incursions by Park's very talented Fijians and they quickly took the score to 12-48 before the home side mounted a spirited comeback with tries by Davies, Burnett and Jones to close the scoring at 36-48.

A good performance all round against a very strong Park 3rd XV.