The Chiefs stayed in contention for a place in the Super 14 semi-finals after surviving an outstanding Sharks fightback in a 35-27 victory in Hamilton yesterday.
Three first-half tries from Lelia Masaga and Tasesa Lavea (2) put the Chiefs in the driving seat and into a 35-3 lead in the second half but the Sharks reeled off four tries to give the hosts a scare and secure a bonus point of their own.
The Chiefs reclaimed fourth place in the table after they were temporarily usurped by the Brumbies on Friday while the Sharks stayed in third place in the standings.
PHOTO: AFP
After an early Stephen Donald penalty gave the Chiefs a 3-0 lead, Masaga's touchdown on nine minutes was adjudged to be legal by the video referee.
Donald converted and nine minutes later a charged down kick from Sharks flyhalf Francois Steyn was collected by Lavea and he touched down unchallenged.
Lavea added his second just before the break when a chip forward rebounded off a post leaving the Chiefs with a 25-3 lead at the interval.
PHOTO: AFP
Brendon Leonard added a fourth try and bonus point after a fine break from Liam Messam before tries from Bobby Skinstad and Deon Carstens gave the South Africans a glimmer of hope at 32-13.
Donald added another penalty before the gap was reduced to 35-20 when Sione Lauki's kick out of a scrum 5m from the Chiefs line resulted in a penalty try which was converted by Steyn.
Mark Du Plessis's pushover try secured the bonus point for the visitors and despite a frantic finale they were unable complete the comeback.
In Brisbane, the Queensland Reds recorded only their second win of a miserable season when they beat the Central Cheetahs of South Africa 23-13 in their Super 14 rugby clash yesterday.
The Reds had not won since they beat the Wellington Hurricanes in the opening round of the Super 14.
But once they got in front, the Reds showed plenty of passion and won convincingly in the end.
They scored two tries to one, with fullback Clinton Schifcofske kicking two goals and three penalties to give Queensland some hope of avoiding the Super 14 wooden spoon.
The Reds, playing more expansively than at any time this season, found themselves in the unusual position of leading at halftime when they went into the break 14-3 ahead.
The Cheetahs opened the scoring with a Meyer Bosman penalty after 13 minutes. But the Reds hit back three minutes later when lock James Horwill crashed over following a neat interchange of passes with flanker Mitchell Chapman and hooker Stephen Moore.
Schifcofske converted from out wide to put Queensland ahead 7-3 and they went further in front on the 30-minute mark when former Wallaby Ben Tune, playing his last ever match on Australian soil, took an intercept and raced 60m to touch down under the posts.
The Cheetahs hit back immediately after halftime when No.8 Kabamba Floors crashed over at the back of a rolling maul and got to within four points on two occasions.
But the steady kicking of Schifcofske always gave the Reds some breathing space and they never really looked like losing throughout the second half.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later