The homeless Canterbury Crusaders continued a relentless charge towards Super Rugby glory with a 29-10 semi-final triumph over Western Stormers at a wet Newlands on Saturday.

Forced to play their eight regular-season home games and a play-off at other New Zealand venues after a deadly earthquake struck Christchurch in February, the Crusaders travelled 11,000 kilometres to outplay the Cape Town team.

The New Zealanders have one more away assignment - against the Quade Cooper-inspired Queensland Reds in Brisbane next Saturday - as they chase a record eighth southern hemisphere championship title.

"I am really proud of what the team achieved tonight. We decided after the earthquakes to stand up for the people at home and that is what we did here," said All Blacks and Crusaders captain and flank Richie McCaw.

"All the travel we have had to do was not fun - but you recover and gear up for a supreme effort come each matchday. It was a great team effort with special praise for our tight five."

Stunned Stormers centre and vice-captain Jean de Villiers conceded his men were outclassed in all phases and not up to the task of reaching a second consecutive final having lost to the Pretoria-based Northern Bulls last year.

"We did not pitch up individually or collectively. There were some early scoring opportunities we did not take and all that can be done now is to try and learn from our mistakes."

The visitors led 23-10 at half-time despite having far less possession than the home side, whose captain and flank Schalk Burger was forced to retire with a broken thumb at the interval.

Hunger at the breakdown where their counter rucking was superb, virtually impenetrable defence and the deadly goal kicking of All Blacks fly-half Dan Carter were key factors in the success.

Stormers, who suffered a late pre-match blow with injury doubt scrum-half Dewaldt Duvenage forced to withdraw, did themselves no favours by conceding penalties within scoring range and gifting Crusaders their first try.

Nick Koster, starting at number eight in place of long-term injury victim Duane Vermeulen, saw a careless pass intercepted by right wing Sean Maitland, who sprinted clear for his ninth try of the season.

Crusaders second try on 34 minutes was created by All Blacks star Sonny Bill Williams, who drew two Stormers and then made a trademark off-load for fellow centre Robert Fruean to dart over.

Stormers supporters finally got something to cheer on the stroke of halftime when Springbok left wing Bryan Habana took a tap penalty and dived over.

It could have been an even more depressed Stormers dressing room at the break as outside centre Jaque Fourie made a superb intercept just short of his tryline to prevent another Crusaders score.

The hoped-for Stormers second half comeback never materialised with the wily Crusaders in no mood to surrender the big lead they had established by feasting off scraps.

Carter succeeded with two of three penalty attempts while Stormers came closest to breaching the Crusaders red wall when Fourie was deprived by a superb cover tackle from left wing Zac Guildford.

Carter finished with 19 points from five penalties and two conversions while opposite number Peter Grant had to settle for a meagre five points from an early penalty and a conversion.

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