Flyhalf Colin Slade kicked 23 points as the Canterbury Crusaders crushed the Australian conference-leading ACT Brumbies 40-20 in Christchurch, New Zealand, yesterday to storm into Super rugby playoff contention.
The seven-time champions had tries from wingers Johnny McNicholl and Nemani Nadolo and a late effort from loose forward Luke Whitelock, but Slade’s punishment of an unusually ill-disciplined performance from the Brumbies was a big factor in the home side’s dominance.
The Crusaders welcomed back flanker Richie McCaw after a long injury lay-off and he played the full 80 minutes after openside Matt Todd was among three Crusaders forced off the pitch by injury in the first 18 minutes.
The Brumbies, runners-up last year, scored tries at the start and end of the second half through hooker Stephen Moore and replacement back Pat McCabe, but will rue some sloppy execution and tackling throughout the match.
CHIEFS-LIONS
AP, HAMILTON, New Zealand,
AND Sydney
The Chiefs scored three tries in a six-minute spell on either side of halftime to secure a bonus point from a 38-8 win over South Africa’s Lions in Super rugby yesterday, breathing new life into their title defense.
Center Charlie Ngatai, returning from injury, created one try and scored another in a pivotal three-minute period leading into the break, then prop Paulasi Manu scored three minutes after the resumption to seal a bonus point and the win.
Flyhalf Gareth Anscombe scored the first of the Chiefs’ tries, while center Bundee Aki and fullback Tim Nanai-Williams scored the fifth and sixth against tiring opposition in the last eight minutes as the two-time defending Super rugby champions roused themselves from a mid-season form slump.
In the day’s other game, much-traveled winger Matt Carraro scored his first try in Super Rugby to break a 24-24 halftime deadlock and put the New South Wales Waratahs on the path to a 39-30 win over the Wellington-based Hurricanes.
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