The Canterbury Crusaders endured an anxious mid-race pitstop in rugby union's Super 14 on the weekend, sitting idle as New South Wales and Wellington passed them and the ACT Brumbies closed in on them from behind.
The Brumbies' thrilling 28-26 win over the Waikato Chiefs yesterday, inspired by a man-of-the-match performance from captain Stirling Mortlock, helped them consolidate fourth place and move within four points of the Crusaders in a breakaway top four.
The Highlanders beat the Cats 16-14 yesterday to move to sixth and the Western Force hosted South Africa's Bulls in the final match of the weekend later yesterday.
PHOTO: AP
The Waratahs' 43-9 win over the Auckland Blues carried them to the top of the championship table and the Hurricanes' 23-17 win over the Sharks on Friday moved them to second place as the Crusaders, early season pacesetters, sat out the round with a bye.
Canterbury had ended round six at the top of the table but saw their narrow lead picked off successively on Friday by the Hurricanes, then the Waratahs. They return to action next week in a match against the Hurricanes which shapes as crucial to the final outcome of the championship.
Home-ground advantage played a vital role in round-seven matches. The Hurricanes, Waratahs and South Africa's Cheetahs, who beat the Queensland Reds 10-6, won home matches Friday and the Brumbies and Highlanders kept up the trend yesterday.
Mortlock scored a try, set up two others and kicked 13 points, including a critical sideline conversion to lift his team to a two-point win over the Chiefs who were one of three teams to take a losing bonus point from seventh-round games.
He scored their first try and had provided all their points as they established a 13-9 halftime lead while his tackling in midfield and creativity on attack helped the Brumbies weather a strong Chiefs resurgence. Tries by prop Simms Davison, from a goal-line maul, and to All Blacks winger Sitiveni Sivivatu helped the Chiefs to a second-half advantage but the Brumbies hit back with tries to Clyde Rathbone and Mark Gerrard.
Mortlock had a hand in both, creating space for Rathbone who ran off a final pass from George Smith and bursting the defense before sending a basketball pass to Gerrard who scored near the corner flag. His sideline conversion of Gerrard's 71st-minute try was the difference between the teams.
Meanwhile, the Highlanders proved defense wins matches when they held South Africa's Cats scoreless for 78 minutes at Invercargill, New Zealand.
Otago led 16-0 at halftime and by the same margin two minutes from the end of normal time, having fought off wave after wave of Cats attacks to ensure their fourth win from seven starts.
The South Africans finally broke through the Highlanders' layered defense in the 78th minute for a try by flanker Gerhard Vosloo then, inspired by the moment, scored again through flyhalf Earl Rose who kicked two conversions to give his team a bonus point.
"I think if they were any better, if they had held onto the ball a couple of times, we could have been in strife," said Highlanders captain Anton Oliver. "Our defense was brilliant."
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but