Coach Robbie Deans is keen to play down the significance of his Canterbury Crusaders' dazzling start to this year's Super 14, warning of a possible Western Stormers ambush in Cape Town today.
The six-time tournament winners are bidding for their first unbeaten tour of South Africa since 2002 after blitzing defending champions the Northern Bulls 54-19 in Pretoria last weekend as part of an 11-try opening to the season.
The Crusaders lead the southern hemisphere provincial rugby series together with fellow New Zealanders, the Auckland Blues, on maximum points and seemingly in ominous form.
But Deans, who will become Australia's first foreign coach after the Super 14, is not letting it all go to the Crusaders' heads and is respectful of the Stormers, missing suspended Springbok flanker Schalk Burger.
The Crusaders have made three changes with winger Caleb Ralph and props Wyatt Crockett and Campbell Johnstone coming into the starting XV.
The unbeaten Blues have made one switch with winger Rudi Wulf coming in for Anthony Tuitavake against the Cheetahs tomorrow.
Coach David Nucifora said continuity was the key factor in deciding to keep the rest of his starting line-up intact against the Cheetahs, who have suffered one-point losses in each of the first two rounds.
The third-placed Sharks are expecting the Bulls to hit back after their humiliation at the hands of the Crusaders when last year's finalists face each other tomorrow.
Western Force coach John Mitchell has warned Chris O'Young his place isn't assured after leaving him out of today's match with the Golden Lions in Johannesburg.
O'Young has flown from Scotland to South Africa to replace the disgraced Matt Henjak.
But O'Young's return will have to wait, after Mitchell stuck with the inexperienced James Stannard at scrumhalf, following an impressive showing in last weekend's win against the Cheetahs.
The Brumbies have dropped young scrumhalf Josh Holmes for tomorrow's all-Australian derby against the Reds in Canberra.
Brumbies coach Laurie Fisher delivered the selection shock after Holmes was guilty of an unacceptable number of missed tackles in the 22-20 win over the Otago Highlanders and has preferred Patrick Phibbs.
Will Genia was called up by the Reds after Wallaby scrumhalf Sam Cordingley failed to recover from a groin injury.
Young prop Sekope Kepu will make his starting debut for the NSW Waratahs against the Highlanders in Dunedin tomorrow after Wallabies prop Al Baxter was ruled out with concussion.
The Hurricanes have the edge over the Chiefs at home today with the Hurricanes winning seven of their 12 previous encounters.
■ MORTLOCK RE-SIGNS
AFP. SYDEY
Wallaby World Cup skipper Stirling Mortlock has turned down a substantial offer from a Japanese club and will play on in Australia until the end of the 2010 season.
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