New Zealand’s Waikato Chiefs went on another scoring rampage, swamping the Queensland Reds 50-26 in their lopsided Super 14 match yesterday.
The Chiefs underlined their title claims with a six-tries-to-four rout of the Reds.
The Waikato-based outfit followed up their 63-34 demolition of the Auckland Blues last week with another high-scoring win to consolidate their spot in the tournament’s top four midway through the seventh round.
The Chiefs stormed to a 19-0 lead in the opening 14 minutes with three tries, two of them to All Black winger Sitiveni Sivivatu, to have the game well won with a 37-12 halftime lead.
Sivivatu and All Black fullback Mils Muliaina scored two tries each, with fly-half Stephen Donald and Dwayne Sweeney scoring the others.
Donald finished with a tally of 23 points from his try, three conversions and four penalties.
Sweeney replaced the injured Sivivatu in the 16th minute, but was only on the field for a minute before he was yellow-carded for tackling Reds winger Blair Connor in the air.
The Reds had their brightest period getting back to 12-22 in Sweeney’s time off the field, before Donald caught Connor out of position nearing halftime with a pin-point cross-kick for Muliaina to score.
Looking down and out, the Reds needed to score first in the second half and did, when fullback Mark McLinden ran off an inside ball from Barnes to score next to the posts.
But the fightback was short lived, with Muliaina scoring off a 40m run.
The Reds salvaged a scoring bonus point out of the wreckage with a try in the 75th minute.
Chiefs captain Muliaina said his side now had built up considerable momentum midway through the championship.
“We were pretty good, we were pretty hungry at the breakdown and we knew we had to start well against these guys,” Muliaina said. “I’m pretty proud of the effort. We’ve got a bit of momentum now and we’ve won a few games on the trot.”
Queensland coach Phil Mooney said the defensive system that had helped the Reds post their last two wins at home this season disintegrated in the first half.
“To be honest, the Chiefs were red hot tonight,” Mooney said.
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