Canterbury Crusaders of New Zealand beat the Golden Lions of South Africa 32-20 on Friday to keep alive their hopes of reaching the Super 14 semi-finals.
Coming off a shock defeat at the hands of the Central Cheetahs in Bloemfontein last weekend, the defending champions ran in four tries at Ellis Park to collect a maximum five points. Victory moves the Crusaders into fourth place with 32 points, while Lions’ eighth defeat kept them in 12th position.
The Crusaders were first to score after a good counterattack from deep in their own half resulted in lock Isaac Ross crossing and fullback Leon MacDonald converting the try. The Lions hit back soon after when scrumhalf Jano Vermaak dived over after good work by flyhalf Andre Pretorius, who hacked the ball ahead when Canterbury lost possession. Pretorius leveled the scores by converting and midway through the opening half the Lions edged ahead via a second try as debutant flanker Johann van Deventer powered past three defenders, displaying pace and nifty footwork to go over.
PHOTO: EPA
Although behind on the scoreboard, the Crusaders did most of the attacking and it was not long before they struck again.
Lions fullback Louis Ludik had a clearance kick charged down by Stephen Brett, who reclaimed the ball and darted over. MacDonald added the conversion and knocked over a penalty to give the visitors a 17-12 advantage before, on the stroke of halftime, Pretorius reduced the deficit to two points when he slotted a penalty.
The Crusaders threatened early in the second half and, while they squandered a few try-scoring opportunities, the pressure finally told when lock Brad Thorn crashed over on 62 minutes. MacDonald converted the try, but when it appeared the Crusaders were going to run away with the game, the Lions hit back to score against the run of play.
Lock Anton van Zyl excelled close to the left touchline to kick the ball into open space behind the New Zealand backs, collect the ball and score to close the gap to four points.
However, the hosts hopes of the match going down to the wire were dashed just two minutes later when a well-worked Crusaders line-out ploy saw replacement hooker Dan Perrin run in his team’s bonus-point try and give them a 29-20 lead with 13 minutes remaining.
MacDonald completed the scoring with a second penalty.
■CHEETAHS 10, WARATAHS 18
AFP, BLOEMFONTEIN
Australian side New South Wales Waratahs climbed four places to fourth in the Super 14 table after a 18-10 win over South Africa’s Central Cheetahs on Friday.
The bottom-of-the-table Cheetahs started and finished well while squandering try-scoring chances, but the rest of the match was dominated by the visitors.
The Waratahs dominance was particularly noticeable in the scrums where loose head Benn Robinson gave opponent Kobus Caldo a torrid time until the Cheetah was replaced late in the second half.
Wallaby Phil Waugh stood out in the loose exchanges on his record 108th appearance for the Sydney-based team, winning numerous turnovers before a sparse Absa Stadium crowd.
The Cheetahs reserved their best form this season for the best with the wins in the southern hemisphere championship coming against then leaders the Coastal Sharks and title holders Canterbury Crusaders. However, the blue shirts of title hopefuls Waratahs did not inspire the traditional Super 14 strugglers and their lone try from replacement back J.W. Jonker came just two minutes from time.
A blow for the Australians was the first-half loss of injured Wallaby wing Lote Tuqiri as they face tougher opposition in the Sharks and Golden Lions on the rest of a South African safari.
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