The Sharks were the only South African team to register a win in the Vodacom Super 14 at the weekend, ensuring that they remain at the top of the log but with the impressive Chiefs breathing down their necks.
The Sharks put in another strong performance in beating the Hurricanes 33-17 in Durban, keeping themselves three points clear at the top of the table and still very much in the running for a home semi-final. Four of their final five matches are at the Absa Stadium.

The Chiefs moved into second place after a 36-29 win over the Auto & General Lions in Hamilton. A much improved performance from the Lions in their first tour match saw them take a 22-10 lead at halftime. The Lions increased the lead to 29-10 soon after the break but the Chiefs staged a remarkable comeback, scoring 26 unanswered points in the final 20 minutes to secure a fifth successive win.
The Chiefs are looking like true contenders but face a three-week tour to South Africa after Easter in which they face the Cheetahs, Bulls and Stormers. The Lions got two points out of the match which sees them move up one place to 12th in the table. Springbok centre Jaque Fourie got a brace of tries and is now the second highest try scorer in the 2009 tournament.

The Vodacom Bulls suffered their second consecutive loss on tour to remain in fourth place. The 2007 champions went down 13-16 against the Crusaders in Christchurch on Friday. Whilst the defeat is a setback, the Bulls have a game in hand over the three teams above them and they will need to make it count when they face the Waratahs and the Brumbies in the coming weeks. The win sees the Crusaders move into fifth position.

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The Highlanders snapped the Vodacom Bulls‘ five-match winning streak in the Vodacom Super 14 on Saturday, beating the lethargic Pretoria outfit 36-12 in Palmerston North. The Highlanders raced to a 21-5 lead in the first half, then consolidated its lead with two second-half tries to inflict the first defeat on the Bulls in the 2009 season.

Highlanders – Tries: Israel Dagg, Matthew Berquist, Jimmy Cowan, Daniel Bowden, Jason Shoemarck. Conversions: Matthew Berquist (4). Penalties: M.Berquist.
Bulls – Tries: Gerhard van den Heever, Morne Steyn. Conversion: Morne Steyn.

The Vodacom Stormers started their match against Crusaders with hopes of becoming only the third South African team to win in Christchurch in Super rugby history, but they blew it with an error-ridden display that led to an 11-7 defeat. Going into the last 10 minutes the Stormers were still well in the game, but the Crusaders beat them hands down with their kicking game from around the 20 minute mark in the match, and ensured that they played the deciding period of the match in the Stormers half. With the Stormers looking incapable of striking from long range, the match was effectively over when Stephen Brett made the territorial advantage count by slotting a penalty from right in front to make it a four point lead and force the Stormers to look for a try.

Crusaders 11 – Try: Adam Whitelock; Penalties: Stephen Brett 2.

Stormers 7 – Try: Luke Watson; Conversion: Willem de Waal.

Mils Muliaina and Sitiveni Sivivatu scored two tries apiece on Saturday as the resurgent Chiefs beat the Reds 50-26 to return to the top four of the Vodacom Super 14 log. After withstanding a series of attacking raids early, the Chiefs dominated the six-tries-to-four victory with flyhalf Stephen Donald directing traffic and scoring 23 points. The Reds picked up a bonus point when flanker Daniel Braid dived over after pinching a Chiefs’ lineout close to the line in the last five minutes. The Chiefs opened the season with three straight losses but have gained momentum since the return of All Blacks fullback Muliaina and have won four in a row.

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The Vodacom Bulls remained the only unbeaten side in the 2009 Super 14 with a hard-fought 19-14 (halt-time 9-7) crucial away victory over the Hurricanes in Wellington on Friday. The victory, which sees the Pretoria-based side stay atop the log, was one earned from feeding off their opponents errors and notching up the points when they infiltrated enemy territory. It may not have been a great advert for Super 14 rugby at its best, but it was an effective percentage style rugby that saw the Bulls home to a key away win.

Adam Thompson and Israel Dagg scored two tries each as the Otago Highlanders overcame a slow start and poor goalkicking to beat South Africa’s Cheetahs 32-8 in Dunedin Saturday. A swirling wind plagued goalkickers from both sides and Otago managed only three goals from 10 attempts, but outscored the winless Cheetahs five tries to one for a bonus point and a critical home win. The Highlanders were down 8-5 at halftime after playing into the wind and missing all five first-half shots at goal. But they scored four second-half tries to beat the tournament’s last-placed team.

All Blacks winger Sitiveni Sivivatu scored four tries Saturday, setting a franchise record, as the Waikato Chiefs beat the Auckland Blues 63-34. Sivivatu’s first try after three minutes was his 33rd for the Chiefs in the Super 14, equaling the try-scoring record for Waikato previously held by winger Roger Randle. Sivivatu’s second, in the 14th minute, set a new mark at 34 tries before he added two more. Sivivatu was also the first Waikato player to score four tries in a Super 14 match. Those tries left Auckland breathless, 28-8 down after 25 minutes in a normally closely contested local derby.

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The Blues remain in touch with the Super 14 competition leaders after thrashing the bottom-placed Vodacom Cheetahs 46-12 in North Harbour Friday. The Blues ran in six tries to two, with their talented backline regularly finding holes in the defence of the South African side at North Harbour Stadium. If not for a large number of handling errors, the Blues could have run up an even bigger score, although they were aided by numerous missed tackles by the Cheetahs, who have yet to record their first win after five games.

Blues:
Tries – Anthony Tuitavake, Chris Lowrey, Isaia Toeava, Taniela Moa, Jamie Helleur, Chris Smylie. Conversions – Jimmy Gopperth (5). Penalties – Gopperth (2).
Vodacom Cheetahs:
Try – Corne’ Uys, Kabamba Floors. Conversion – Jacques-Louis Potgieter.

The experience of Stirling Mortlock and George Smith provided the crucial edge as the Brumbies stripped the Waratahs of their unbeaten status with a 21-11 victory in Canberra on Friday. Mortlock’s straight-running and composure in the backs and Smith’s domination of the breakdown made the difference as the Brumbies yet again lowered the colours of their old foes from New South Wales. With South African referee Mark Lawrence reverting to past habits at the breakdown by favouring the attacking side the Brumbies were able to put together their trademark continuity and ran out convincing winners in spite of losing skipper Stephen Hoiles because of a knee injury.

It was one of those days where no-one was particularly happy at the final whistle as the Crusaders and the Western Force fought out a 23-all draw in Christchurch on Saturday. Of the two teams, however, it should have been the Crusaders that were the least happy. Apart from the fact that they were playing at home, and this was the fourth match in succession where they failed to win, the champions looked to have the game wrapped up at half-time. They led 20-6 at that stage, were playing great rugby and had already scored three tries. The crowd at AMI Stadium rightly looked to be celebrating already, and the big question mark as the second half started appeared to revolve only over how long it would take for them to record their fourth try for the bonus point. But the bonus point try never came, and after leading 23-9 with a quarter of the match remaining, the Crusaders squandered an excellent opportunity to get back onto the winning track as they failed to close the game out.

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The Chiefs got their first win of the season by downing the Western Force 31-13 in their Super 14 match played at the Waikato Stadium in Hamilton on Friday. The Chiefs made an impressive start to score three tries and lead 21-6 at the break but then allowed the Force back into the game and did not secure the bonus point until well after the final hooter – courtesy of the Force keeping the ball alive in an effort to get a point for themselves.

Waratahs replacement Timana Tahu profited from a perfectly placed field kick and good chasing and challenging from his teammates to score the try that killed off arch-rivals the Reds in a Australian derby in Sydney on Friday. Australian derbies are often closely fought and frequently they also produce rugby that can be considered dour and unspectacular. That generalisation was right on the first count, but perhaps not on the second as both teams took turns to entertain as the hosts won 15-11 after trailing 11-10 at half-time. Overall though neither team would be too pleased with their performance, for they generally struggled to protect their own possession enough, with a whopping 52 turn-overs in the game.

All Blacks winger Hosea Gear scored a try in each half to lead the Hurricanes to a 29-12 victory over the Vodacom Cheetahs in New Plymouth on Saturday. Gear scored both tries from turnovers, the first after 20 minutes and the second just after half-time when the Wellington-based side broke out of their own half and the left winger sprinted 50m to give his side breathing room. The try came immediately after the Cheetahs’ Wayne van Heerden had scored under the posts in the 42nd minute and flyhalf Jacques-Louis Potgieter’s conversion had brought the winless South African side within five points at 17-12.
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The Stormers got their Vodacom Super 14 season off the mark with the win they were looking for, but most of the way they looked destined for a lot more than the 27-24 victory they scored over the Reds at Newlands. But they were guilty of playing too much like individuals and not protecting their possession enough, and their celebrations would have been muted with the knowledge that with 26 minutes to go they already had three tries and looked almost certain of the fourth that would have given them a full house. At that stage the Stormers were leading 27-5, and the 33 000-strong crowd buzzed in anticipation of the flood-gates opening up. Instead, it was the Reds who finished with all the momentum, scoring three tries in the last quarter hour to condemn the Stormers’ supporters to a far more anxious ending than they would have expected.

SCORERS

Stormers: Tries – Tonderai Chavanga, Andries Bekker, Sireli Naqelevuki. Conversions – Peter Grant (3). Penalties – Grant (2).

Reds: Tries – Quade Cooper, Saia Faingaa, Scott Higgenbotham, Van Humphries. Conversion – Ben Lucas (2)

A Stirling Mortlock conversion of a Mark Gerrard try on the hooter earned the Brumbies a thrilling 18-16 win over the Vodacom Super 14 champion Crusaders in Canberra on Saturday. The Brumbies appear to be getting used to close finishes now, and no-one would ever be able to say they don’t know how to win a game late by coming from behind. Last week, in Dunedin, it was a Christian Lealiifano drop-goal with two minutes to go that won it for them against the Highlanders in the opening match.

The Bulls stampeded to a record 59-26 victory over the Blues to maintain their position at the top of the Vodacom Super 14 log at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria on Saturday night. The Bulls registered seven tries (including the bonus point for four tries within 23 min 22 sec) in a massively impressive performance against one of the more fancied sides in the tournament. Bryan Habana scored the first try in 3:53 as Fourie du Preez showed absolute faith in the winger’s pace by pushing through a grubber to the left-hand corner; Dewald Potgieter got his first Super 14 try in the 16th minute; Zane Kirchner was over in the 21st minute and the herculean Pierre Spies dotted down in 23:22 as he grabbed a chip-kick which was meant to clear his head and charged 50 metres to the line. Morné Steyn kicked three of the conversions and the Bulls were 26-0 up and heading for a win that will go down as one of their best in SuperRugby.

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Flyhalf Christian Lealiifano kicked a dropped goal with less than a minute to go to give the Brumbies a 33-31 victory over the Highlanders in an exhilarating start to the 2009 Vodacom Super 14 tournament in Dunedin on Friday. Both sides earned a bonus point for tries in a see-sawing game that at first had the Highlanders well in front, then the Brumbies surging ahead, then the home-side snatching back the lead before Lealiifano became his side’s hero by sending a pressure drop through the uprights with 50 seconds left on the clock.

A three-try burst after half time enabled the Blues to start their Vodacom Super 14 campaign with an encouraging 25-19 win over the Western Force at the Subiaco Oval in Perth on Friday. The Blues trailed by six points at half time, as the Force led 14-8, but put a bumbling first 40 minutes behind them by scoring 17 unanswered points in 14 minutes straight after the break. That effectively snuffed out the Force challenge, as the home team had been tenacious in defending in the face of a strong wind and a quite dominant Blues challenge up to that point.

A pair of dropped goals, one each by André Pretorius and Earl Rose, lowered coach Eugene Eloff’s blood pressure a good few notches as the Lions beat the Cheetahs 34-28 at Coca-Cola Park on Friday night. In keeping with an exhilarating first day’s play in the 2009 competition the Cat-fight in Johannesburg produced a thriller as the Cheetahs fought back from 28-14 down to level the score at 28-all with 13 minutes left to play.

Auto & General Lions (21) 34: Tries by Cobus Grobbelaar (11 min), Ashwin Willemse (27 min), Henno Mentz (33 min), Willemse (47 min). Earl Rose kicked four conversions and a dropped goal Andre Pretorius a dropped goal.

Vodacom Cheetahs (11) 28: Tries by Frans Viljoen (17 min), Heinrich Brussow (61 min), J-L Potgieter (66 min). Jacques-Louis Potgieter kicked two conversions and three penalties.

The Cruaders made a winning start to the Todd Blackadder era as coach when they edged out the gutsy Chiefs 19-13 in Christchurch on Saturday. The champions scored three tries to two, but the third of their tries was scored in the last minute of a tight game, and in reality it could have gone either way as the Chiefs had several opportunities to win it as the match headed into the final minutes.

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