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 Shark‘s thwarting of the opposition’s close driving near the line and a better field kicking game were the factors that helped them to a nailbiting 22-15 win over the Chiefs in the first match of their Vodacom Super 14 tour on Saturday. Even for an ardent South African supporter it would have been hard not to feel sorry for the Chiefs. As the commentators said, it was incredibly bad luck they did not escape with at least a draw in a game where for much of it they were in the ascendancy everywhere but on the scoreboard.

Scorers:
Chiefs – Tries: Brendan Leonard, Aled De Malmanche. Conversion: Stephen Donald. Penalty Conversion: Stephen Donald.
Sharks – Tries: Francois Steyn, JP Pieterson (2). Conversion: Rory Kockott (2). Penalty Conversion: Rory Kockott.

Cameron Shepherd registered the season’s first hat-trick of tries to help the Force to a crucial 25-16 away victory over the Brumbies in Canberra on Saturday. The big left-wing was on the end of three superb passing movements with No8 Richard Brown also going over to also give the Force the bonus point. The Brumbies had escaped with narrow victories in their first two games, including beating the Crusaders, but an uncharacteristic sluggishness crept into their game in this match and they were unable to take full advantage of their superiority in the set-pieces – especially at scrum time.

The Bulls clung to the top of the Vodacom Super 14 log with a hard-fought 16-9 win over a gritty Lions side at Coca-Cola Park on Saturday evening. Billed as the “Jukskei Derby” the players must have felt they were playing in the river after a cloudburst shortly before kick-off left the field soggy and cloying underfoot. The match kicked off in a steady shower and although the rain abated later on conditions were extremely difficult and it resulted in an error-ridden encounter that, pardon the obvious pun, the Bulls made heavy weather of winning.

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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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