The Queensland Reds will face the Blues in the Super Rugby semi-finals after the Crusaders beat the Sharks 36-8 in Saturday night's sudden-death qualifier in New Zealand.

Tries to Sonny Bill Williams, Kieran Read and Ben Franks and 19 points from the boot of Dan Carter allowed the Crusaders to eliminate South Africa's Sharks and set up a sudden-death clash against the Stormers in Cape Town on July 3.

The result means the table-topping Reds will host the Blues in the other semi after the Auckland side knocked out the NSW Waratahs 26-13 on Friday night.

The Crusaders, homeless thanks to the Christchurch earthquake, are chasing an eighth Super rugby title.

In a titanic clash at Nelson on Saturday night, just one try separated the teams early in the second half before the Crusaders unleashed 23 unanswered points.

They outscored the Sharks three tries to one with the game turning on a runaway intercept try by captain Kieran Read midway through the second half from which the Sharks never recovered.

As the New Zealand Conference champions stepped up the pace, the travel fatigue began to tell on the Sharks, who had a disrupted trip to Nelson because of the ash cloud from Chile's volcano.

Read said patience was the key for his side after the Sharks had the better of the early exchanges.

"It took a bit of time, and we knew that was going to be the case. The Sharks are a quality outfit so the guys stuck in there and to just finish it off at the end, create those opportunities, was great for us," he said.

"It shows the amount of heart we wanted to put into the performance."

Sharks captain Stefan Terblanche was amazed at how the Crusaders continued to dominate despite being on the road for every game after the devastating February earthquake in Christchurch which made their stadium unplayable.

"They've had a lot of adversity, a lot of difficulty outside of rugby. For a team to come together like they did tonight and for the whole season to play away from home every weekend. From the Sharks, we wish them all the very best."

The Sharks conceded points from the kick off when they tried to run themselves out of trouble but instead fell foul of the referee at the first maul leaving Dan Carter with a simple shot at goal.

The Sharks put the first try on the board when scrumhalf Charl McLeod cut through a gaping hole in a Crusaders lineout to ignite a 65-metre run which resulted in Willem Alberts crashing over.

That was the only telling break in the tensely contested match until 25 minutes later when Matt Todd freed up Sonny Bill Williams for an end-to-end break by the Crusaders.

The final pass in the move to Zac Guildford was lost, but the Crusaders pack monstered the Sharks off the ball in the scrum and Sean Maitland, coming back from a long injury break, sent Williams over.

Carter, who missed two penalties in the half, landed the conversion and another penalty for the Crusaders to lead 13-5 at the turn.

Patrick Lambie narrowed the gap to 13-8 with a penalty early in the second half before the Crusaders began to click first with another Carter penalty and then Read's perfectly anticipated intercept try.

The All Blacks backrower had waited patiently midfield as both sides entered into a lengthy kicking duel and, when Sharks fly-half Frederic Michalak decided it was time to run again, Read was waiting to snaffle a floating pass.

The try took the fight out of the Sharks who struggled to reach the half-way line for the remaining 30 minutes.

Carter landed two more penalties for a match haul of 19 points and replacement prop Ben Franks scored a late try.

Brought to you by AAP © 2024 AAP