The Crusaders were made to work harder than expected to beat the hapless Lions 46-19 in their Super 14 clash in Christchurch on Saturday.

The win, their fifth from six outings, kept the seven-time champions on course to again make the playoffs while the Lions remain without a win.

But despite the 27-point margin the contest was much closer than expected after Crusaders coach Todd Blackadder gambled on leaving five All Blacks on the bench against one of the weakest defensive sides in the competition.

The Crusaders held only a slender 22-16 halftime lead and with 15 minutes to go the Lions trailed by just 13 points.

But when Blackadder unleashed his replacements, including Dan Carter and veteran lock Chris Jack at halftime, it lifted the Crusaders in the closing stages and they ran in two late tries to secure the bonus point.

Captain Richie McCaw readily admitted the flattering scoreline did not tell the full story.

"Perhaps in the first half the couple of tries we got came a little easy and we thought it was all going to happen without doing the hard yards," he said.

"But we stuck at it and the five points I'm happy with. You've still got to do all the little bits right. It wasn't quite perfect."

The Lions had control over the early exchanges and led 6-0 from two Burton Francis penalties before the Crusaders were allowed into the game.

Colin Slade, who started in the number 10 jersey ahead of Carter and kicked 21 points to be man of the match, put the home side on the board with the first of his five penalties.

A Sean Maitland try and another Slade penalty put the Crusaders up 11-6 before the Lions regained the lead with a try to hooker Hannes Franklin converted by Francis.

Two more Slade penalties and a try to Jonathan Poff for the Crusaders and another Francis penalty for the Lions rounded out the first-half scoring.

In the second half, a booming 55-metre penalty to Slade who also converted a try by Adam Whitelock and a further penalty to Francis had the Crusaders ahead 32-19 with 15 minutes to play.

But repeated Lions efforts to further close the gap, led by vigilant fullback Lionel Rose, were repulsed by a desperate Crusaders defence.

When the sting was taken out of the Lions attack, charging backrower Thomas Waldrom led the Crusaders deep into Lions territory where Maitland and replacement scrum half Willi Heinz both scored in the closing minutes.

The Crusaders have the bye next week while the Lions continue their road trip against the Otago Highlanders in Dunedin.

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