The Force are sitting fifth but have to travel to Hamilton to meet the Chiefs on Friday, while the eighth-placed Blues travel to Brisbane to play the Reds. Both games are on Friday. The seventh-placed Hurricanes face a trip to Canberra to play the third-placed Brumbies.
Crusaders 25 Blues 22
Rob Penney (Crusaders coach)
"It was pretty average. Difficult conditions, really challenging conditions, and we probably played a lot better without the ball than we did with it.
"We were a wee bit loose [in defence] before halftime, but we tightened it up beautifully and created real pressure through our defence.
"The attitude towards the end when it was tight, we found a way which reflects all the work the coaches are putting in and the leadership on the field.
"They're [the Blues] are renowned for building pressure. They've got a big forward group that takes control when they can. They forced their way through a couple of times.
But overall, given their possession advantage, you'd have to be satisfied that our defence held out for large periods.
"We've got a world-class front row. We've got combinations that can do the job. Fletcher [Newell] going 80 minutes as a tighthead and then finishing the game with a special scrum to allow James [O'Connor] to get the glory. All the glory really goes to Fletcher and the other boys. But for him to go 80 minutes is herculean.
"We've always been conscious that we need to be a dominant pack and we're not there year, but we've shown good signs."
Replacement first five-eighths and winning goalkicker James O'Connor
"I was delighted [to kick the winning goal]. I could feel something was coming. The boys were up for that scrum, the pack was incredible tonight. So those are the moments you live for, you kick for.
"I was getting set either way to sit in the pocket and have a crack at a dropped goal. You could see the focus and energy of the boys before that scrum. They wanted it."
"It's still early days [in the competition]. We're just over halfway through the season and there are some big matches coming up. Just sealing that one tonight was huge for the team."
Blues coach Vern Cotter
"It was pretty tough losing in the last minute. We were preparing for extra time and hoping we'd get another crack. It was just a couple of handling errors and a couple of penalties, but the boys' intentions were good.
"We were in the game 19-7 down and then came back and dominated most of the stats around the game. The forwards rolled their sleeves up, and we saw some direct and physical play, and we didn't go away from it. We stayed in it; it wasn't perfect, but there was good intention behind it. We were up for it, and it slipped away. We're disappointed with the loss.
"We'd put in enough effort to get more than one point, but we got one point that helped us. If we keep going to tough and dark places weekly, we'll tip these over one day.
"We saw a little bit of brilliance from Hoskins [Sotutu] in getting that ball out wide. He does things that we can't coach. He's got an amazing skill set, he's an incredible player. So it's there from our perspective; we're disappointed we did not get the four points.
"We started the first half poorly and gave away a try and did the same thing when we started the second half. We need to start our halves better than that. We made it hard for ourselves."
Moana Pasifika 0 Brumbies 24
Moana Pasifika coach Tana Umaga
"We can't blame the conditions. We had opportunities. We entered their 22 nine times. We usually come away with points. But that's a learning for us, we can't take things for granted.
"We still have to understand the details that give us opportunities like that. I can't fault the effort and the heart. It's probably one of our best defensive efforts.
"But you can't keep giving them entries into our 22 and think we're going to stop them every time. They're too good a side for that. A big lesson for us is we need discipline in certain parts of the field.
"We'll reassess where we're at, come together as a group, and ensure we stay tight. We've still got plenty of games left in this competition. We have to look at some things we need to work on, but we'll stay positive.
"We've got the Drua next week at home again. It doesn't get any easier for us. We can't dwell too much, but we've got to learn."
Chiefs 46 Highlanders 10
Chiefs coach Clayton McMillan
"The first half was an arm wrestle, but we felt if we could get enough possession in the right parts of the field, build a few more phases and put them under pressure, that would eventually be able to break them down, and that is mostly what happened.
"It wasn't always perfect, but I don't recall them getting too many turnovers, so that was another positive.
"A lot of teams are going to the contestable kicking game, and that's an area where we have been a bit up and down, and we need to tidy that up. When the ball is in the air, you get bodies in the air and win it. And if we don't win it, we need to be good at fighting for the scraps.
"Last week [the Waratahs] was an uppercut around our game, and we challenged our leaders to take some ownership, to step forward and be better. We got a good response.
"We trained hard and worked to find the margins we knew we needed to find, to give ourselves a chance at least. It's not perfect, but we're learning some good things about our game as we progress through the season.
Chiefs captain Luke Jacobson
"[At halftime] Even though the scores were tight, we were not too far off where we wanted to be. Our defence had been good; we just needed to be a couple of steps faster on the attack to reload, see the space and attack. We saw some good shifts in the second half.
"We were able to get the ball to space, spread the Highlanders' defence more and get some rewards from them.
"Out of our strikes into their 22m, we had a good conversion rate, and we'd like to do that in the first half. But sometimes you don't always get it your way, so it is how you adapt and can attack the next situation.
"The challenge is to keep the foot on the throat, keep nailing the small things because they stack up and become big things."
Highlanders coach Jamie Joseph
"The first half was tough. We defended well most of the time. We had 100 tackles, but we got through, turned it around, and didn't come out after halftime. We lost a bit of confidence in that first five minutes in the second half, and a good team like the Chiefs punished us.
"The harder we tried, the worse we got. The disappointing thing for us as a team is that when we had an advantage, we never maximised it, and, in fact, we did the opposite. We made unforced errors, and it unravelled.
"It correlates to the confidence we have as a young team with an average age of 22. There are a lot of new boys that haven't played that level of rugby. We don't have a lot of depth.
"We don't have a factor where players are throwing in the towel and giving it away. It's the opposite when they're trying too hard and sometimes it's not necessarily the right thing at the right time."
Force 17 Hurricanes 17
Hurricanes coach Clark Laidlaw
"The game's not won and lost by a drop-kick that hits the post. We had a heap of opportunities in the second half. We got on top for a bit and we didn't take a couple of obvious ones, and we paid for that."
On Ruben Love's play at first five-eighths
"He got better as the game went on. He started seeing the space. We got the ball movement we've been craving in the second half. It was how I expected him to play. He's not played a lot at 10 over the last little while, but he had a good week with good communication around how we wanted to play."
Hurricanes co-captain Brad Shields
"I think the momentum is swinging too often. We need to stay in control of some of that momentum and when we get on top it's important that we are constantly knocking on the the door. Sometimes we just took our foot off the accelerator and we couldn't quite put them away."