South Africa's Cheetahs completed a hat-trick of Super Rugby wins for the first time by shocking the Crusaders 33-20 at Free State Stadium on Saturday.

The Bloemfontein-based franchise have been among the also-rans of the southern hemisphere championship for several seasons, but a mid-season recovery also claimed the scalps of the Brumbies and Lions.

The Cheetahs turned around a 17-16 half-time deficit to dominate the second half and owed their victory to heroic defence and 23 points from young fly-half Sias Ebersohn, who missed just one of eight kicks at goal.

It did not help the home team that injury-prone Springbok flanker Heinrich Brussouw had to come off with a hamstring strain midway through the opening half, but peroxide blond Kabamba Floors proved a superb replacement.

Crusaders were hit by injuries with leading try scorer Sean Maitland among the absentees, but the Christchurch-based outfit welcomed back their most famous stars, five-eighth Dan Carter and flanker and captain Richie McCaw.

Carter contributed 12 points before being replaced by Matthew Berquist 12 minutes into the second half while McCaw was constantly involved in the forward exchanges as he made only his third appearance of the season.

"It was a great day for Cheetahs rugby. We have been through some tough times so all credit to the guys and our coaches," said exhausted hooker and captain Adriaan Strauss.

"Defence is an area where we have improved a lot although we did give Crusaders a few easy gaps. Although we had a 13-point lead I didn't feel confident of victory until the final minute."

McCaw said: "We spent too much time at the wrong end of the field and made mistakes. Lacking some players through injury is no excuse as this affects all teams. Consistency is the key to Super success and we need to find it."

Victory left Cheetahs in mid-table with 29 points - 11 fewer than the NSW Waratahs team occupying the final play-off place- while Crusaders stayed third, six points adrift of leaders Queensland Reds.

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