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Super 14 results reopen questions over 2007 season

Many of the lingering questions over the previous season were revisited when the Canterbury Crusaders crushed South Africa's Bulls 54-19 in the second round of rugby union's Super 14.

The Crusaders scored seven tries to beat the defending champions in front of a crowd of more than 50,000 at Pretoria's Loftus Versfeld stadium.

The win, and an equally emphatic 53-10 victory by the Auckland Blues over the Lions, puts the New Zealand teams well out in front in this year's championship and brings to the surface many of the "what ifs" of the last, eventful rugby year.

The Bulls beat the Crusaders 27-12 in the semi-finals of last year's competition and went on win an all-South African final against the Sharks, who had beaten the Blues in their playoff match.

The impetus South African rugby gained from its first Super 14 title and the confidence many of the Bulls and Sharks players took into the Springboks' World Cup campaign played a large part in South Africa's success in that tournament.

There was a strong feeling, after the Super 14, that a South African World Cup win -- their second, the first being in 1995 -- was almost predestined.

The campaigns of the New Zealand teams, and particularly the Crusaders who were then the defending champions, were seriously affected by steps taken by All Blacks coach Graham Henry to prepare his players for the World Cup.

Henry was allowed to take 22 All Blacks out of the first seven rounds of last year's championship as part of a "pre-conditioning program" designed to have them at peak fitness for the world tournament in October.

When those players returned to Super 14 action in the latter part of the season, they were mostly lacking in match fitness, had lost their usual sharpness and caused immense disruption to teams which had developed new patterns and combinations in their absence.

The Crusaders were hardest hit and their campaign never gained the momentum of previous seasons.

This weekend, the Crusaders and Blues both scored seven tries in outplaying and outthinking South African rivals. The Bulls came into Friday's match full of confidence and were only five points down, 17-12, at halftime but were overwhelmed in the second half.

The five South African franchises managed only five tries among them in their second-round matches.

The Sharks relied on penalties to beat the Stormers 12-10, kicking all of those goals in the second half after trailing 10-0 at halftime. The Cheetahs scored two tries, the best effort by any South African team, but went down 16-15 to the Western Force after leading at halftime.
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