Quade Cooper kicked a last-minute penalty to snatch a dramatic 17-16 win for the Queensland Reds over the Canterbury Crusaders in their Super 15 clash in Brisbane yesterday.
Before an Australian record crowd of 48,301 for a Super Rugby game, the Reds showed resilience and composure to deny the seven-time champions victory after the Crusaders had hit the front minutes before.
All Blacks skipper Richie McCaw was penalized by Australian referee Stuart Dickinson for hands in the ruck as he attempted a turnover to give Wallaby flyhalf Cooper his shot at the clinching penalty.
Photo: Reuters
Queensland won their 12th straight match at home and consolidated their position at the top of the Australian Conference and overall tournament standings with three matches left before next month’s top-six playoffs.
For a time the Crusaders looked to be grinding their way to victory after whittling away Queensland’s 14-10 lead five minutes after halftime.
All Black Dan Carter, who outpointed Cooper in the battle of the flyhalves, kicked a 69th-minute penalty and another five minutes from time to put the Crusaders ahead, before Cooper’s late intervention.
The match was played at a breathless pace and the Reds outscored the Crusaders two tries to one to signal that the Australian outfit loom as genuine contenders for their maiden Super Rugby title this season.
“That was a massive effort from the boys and that was a good night,” Reds skipper James Horwill said. “The boys just kept getting up for each other in defense and that speaks volumes for what this group is about. We know that the Crusaders are a quality side and they are always going to keep coming at you so no lead is safe, but credit to the boys.”
McCaw, who had a running battle with referee Dickinson over his rulings, pointed to the Crusaders’ lack of discipline for the loss.
“You can’t afford to do that. I’m proud of the way we got ourselves back into the game and I didn’t feel we were out of it,” McCaw said. “We played some pretty smart rugby to put them under pressure, especially in the first half, but we didn’t get the reward we could have got ... you can’t afford that ill-discipline. The Reds when they get good set-piece ball are a difficult team to contain and we did well to put some pressure on their lineout and scrum, but these are the games you want to win and it’s disappointing to come away with a loss.”
The Reds scored against the run of play in the 22nd minute when center Ben Tapuai appeared to benefit from an unsighted forward pass to score and Wallaby scrumhalf Will Genia put the home side in front five minutes after the resumption with a dart to the corner from a scrum win.
The Crusaders scored their only try 10 minutes from halftime through winger Brent Ward after a break by center Robert Fruean.
SHARKS 26, WARATAHS 21
REUTERS, DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA
Sharks flyhalf Patrick Lambie kept alive his team’s playoff hopes when he scored 21 points on Saturday in a victory over Australia’s New South Wales Waratahs.
The 20-year-old Springbok prodigy scored an excellent individual try and followed it up with four penalties and two conversions to give the Sharks their eighth win in 13 matches.
The result moved them to within five points of the Stormers at the top of the South African Conference.
In a free-flowing match, the visitors opened the scoring in the fifth minute through a penalty by fullback Kurtley Beale, before Sharks flyhalf Lambie crossed for the first try five minutes later.
Lambie received the ball from a scrum 30m out and dummied his way through a midfield gap to dive over under the posts and then convert to make it 7-3.
Lambie scored two penalties and Beale one penalty, before Waratahs winger Lachlan Turner swung the momentum when he crossed in the left-hand corner just before halftime for an amazing length-of-the-field team effort.
The Sharks had looked set to score at the other end, but when they gave away possession on the Waratahs’ line, flyhalf Daniel Halangahu ran 80m upfield from the turnover, before feeding Turner with a perfectly timed pass.
Halangahu then scored himself shortly after the break with a good inside step and Beale’s conversion gave the Waratahs a five-point lead.
That increased to eight after 50 minutes when Sharks flanker Jean Deysel was shown a yellow card for foul play, allowing Beale to kick his third penalty.
The flagging Sharks needed something special if they were to fight their way back and they found it in the form of resurgent Springbok wing J.P. Pietersen, who sprinted in from 65m after picking up a spilled Waratahs ball.
Lambie’s conversion and a 70th-minute penalty gave the Sharks a 23-21 lead as the clock wound down, with the flyhalf sealing matters with a fourth penalty with a minute remaining.
BULLS 32, CHEETAHS 21
REUTERS, PRETORIA
Replacement Bulls lock Danie Rossouw scored two tries in seven minutes in a win over the Cheetahs on Saturday that reignited the struggling champions’ season.
Rossouw, who played at No. 8 for the Springboks in the 2007 Rugby World Cup final, came on as a second-half substitute with his team hanging on to a slender 11-7 lead and the Cheetahs in the ascendancy.
The 33-year-old showed all his experience at a crucial stage against the gallant, but inexperienced and injury-ravaged visitors.
The Bulls’ eighth win in 13 matches, where they secured a four-try bonus point, leaves them in third place in the South African Conference.
The Cheetahs, in coming to the end of a four-match winning streak that included a victory over seven-time champions Canterbury Crusaders, remain fourth, 11 points adrift of the Bulls and firmly out of playoff contention.
The Bulls, who have never lost to the Cheetahs on their home ground in Super Rugby, opened the scoring in the third minute when winger Bjorn Basson scooted over in the left-hand corner.
Flyhalf Morne Steyn hooked the acute-angled conversion, but succeeded with penalties in the 17th and 34th minutes to give his team an 11-0 lead at halftime.
Any thoughts of the match being a one-sided encounter were quickly dispelled after the break when Cheetahs flanker Ashley Johnson scored the first of his two tries in the 51st minute to make it 11-7 after flyhalf Sias Ebersohn’s conversion.
With the visitors pushing hard, replacement Rossouw burst through the Cheetahs’ midfield defense from 40m for his first try, then cantered in for his second after Steyn had made all the running.
The Cheetahs’ never-say-die attitude was exemplified by the livewire Johnson, who sprinted in from 30m for his second try with 15 minutes left after an incisive midfield break by hooker and captain Adriaan Strauss.
Ebersohn ghosted through with a minute left, then converted his own try, but the Bulls countered clinically with a fourth try to scrumhalf Francois Hougaard for a bonus point that may yet prove crucial in the final standings.
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