The Auto & General Lions must surely end the season with the unwanted status as the Vodacom Super 14’s most charitable team following their narrow 38-33 loss to the Waratahs in Johannesburg on Friday night.

The Crusaders overcame two controversial TMO calls to beat the Blues 15-13 in a pulsating match in Auckland on Saturday. Four penalty goals and a 76th-minute dropped goal by Leon MacDonald enabled the seven-times Super Rugby champions to stay in the hunt for another title.

All Black center Ma’a Nonu scored two tries and the Hurricanes secured a four-try bonus point with seven minutes left in first half to beat the Reds 37-28 in Brisbane on Saturday and qualify for the Vodacom Super 14 semifinals. The win moved the Hurricanes to 44 points and into the top four on the final weekend of the regular season.

The Highlanders lost 28-33 but the last-minute try they scored against the Western Force in Perth on Saturday ensured that three South Africans teams finished among the last four on the Vodacom Super 14 log this year. After trailing 0-23 at halftime, the New Zealanders scored four second-half tries to lift themselves above the Lions, the Stormers, the Reds and the Cheetahs at the bottom of the log.

Another man of the match performance from fullback Joe Pietersen was the spark that the Vodacom Stormers needed as they finished their Super 14 season with a 28-22 win over the Vodacom Cheetahs in Bloemfontein on Saturday. The win lifted the Stormers, who led 17-10 at the break, to tenth from the 11th position they held at the start of the weekend. It was probably six or seven places adrift of where they hoped to be when they did their pre-season planning, but at least in winning three of their last four games they have picked up some momentum ahead of the Currie Cup season.

The Bulls maintained steely composure under pressure to beat the Sharks 27-26 in their match at the ABSA Stadium in Durban on Saturday to go top of the final log and set up a semifinal at Loftus Versfeld next weekend. In an exceptional match that sent out a strong message to the British and Irish Lions, wherever they might have been watching, about the healthy state of South African rugby the Bulls fought back from 10-19 down to claim the victory they needed to clinch the No1 position on the table and set up a home semi-final against the fourth-placed Crusaders.

Source: sarugby.co.za