Center Isaia Toeava had a hand in three tries as the first-place Auckland Blues moved nine points clear in Super 14 rugby with a 26-8 win over South Africa's Cheetahs on Friday.
Toeava's clean line breaks created tries for Steve Devine in the third minute, Doug Howlett in the 36th and Anthony Tuitavake in the 49th, helping the Blues to a win by three tries to one and their eighth win from nine games.
Toeava burst onto the ball in the third minute, shrugged off two tacklers, then managed to stand in a third tackle near the goal line. He then hurled an accurate infield pass to halfback Devine, who scored untouched.
Toeava handled only briefly in the move that led to Auckland's second try, but his strength and ability to stand in a tackle helped create the space in which Howlett scored his 59th Super rugby try and his sixth of the season.
A spectacular break in the 49th minute by Toeava and his flick infield to flanker Daniel Braid stretched the Cheetah's defense and made a superb try for left winger Anthony Tuitavake.
Braid began the move with a turnover, continued it from Toeava's pass and sent Tuitavake away on his final dash to the line.
The match was fast and physical and Auckland was less dominant than its recent form suggested.
"It was full-on for 80 minutes," said Blues captain Troy Flavell. "You have to take hat off to the Cheetahs. It's probably the hardest and most physical game we've had all season."
Defense was the strongest aspect of the Cheetahs' game as the South Africans denied Auckland a four-try bonus point despite the home side's territorial dominance.
The Cheetahs were particularly adept at defending at rolling mauls and they contained Auckland's dangerous backline for all but the few moments in which Toeava made his presence felt.
Discipline cost the Blues and they conceded 17 penalties, which might have been more costly had the Cheetahs not decided early on to forego kicks at goal.
Flyhalf Herkie Kruger landed his only penalty in the fifth minute and missed the conversion of Ryno van der Merwe's 80th-minute try.
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
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
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier