The Wellington Hurricanes provided further evidence that their defense of the Super Rugby title will be a stern one when they crushed the Melbourne Rebels 71-6 in their second match of the season yesterday.
The Hurricanes opened their title defense with an 83-17 win over the Japan-based Sunwolves and followed that 13-try performance with an 11-tries-to-nil victory yesterday.
All Blacks winger Nehi Milner-Skudder scored three tries in his return to Super Rugby after an almost 18-month absence through injury, while winger Vince Aso and center Ngani Laumape had two tries each.
Photo: EPA
Matt Procter, Ardie Savea, Jordie Barrett, Reed Princep and Julian Savea also scored tries as the Hurricanes overwhelmed the Rebels, who showed no improvement from their 56-18 loss to the Auckland Blues in the first round.
While the Hurricanes have achieved victories over two of the weakest teams in their tournament, it was the manner rather than the margin of their wins that was impressive.
After conceding two early penalties to trail 6-0, the Hurricanes dominated every aspect of the match and launched try-scoring movements from any part of the field.
They based that on their domination of set pieces, they were far too strong for the Rebels at breakdown and they were able to create turnovers at will.
“It’s obviously been a pretty good start,” Hurricanes captain Dane Coles said. “It’s good the way we carried on that attack from last week.”
In Dunedin, the Canterbury Crusaders scored four second-half tries, including two in the final five minutes, to rally from 27-6 down and beat the Otago Highlanders 30-27 in Dunedin.
Winger Seta Tamanivalu scored the winning try with just over a minute on the clock as the Crusaders exploited a one-man advantage after Highlanders center Malakai Fekitoa was sin-binned for a dangerous tackle.
Otago winger Waisake Naholo scored two tries and had a hand in a third as the Highlanders, bidding for their third straight win over the Crusaders, secured a 21-point lead just after halftime.
In the third match of seven, some of which began after press time last night, South Africa’s Durban-based Sharks handed the ACT Brumbies their second loss in a row, beating them 27-22 with a late try.
The Sharks scored the match-winning try 60 seconds after the final siren in Canberra when replacement Curwin Bosch put through a kick that surprised the Brumbies defense.
Lukhanyo Am dived on the loose ball for the winner.
“I feel for the Brumbies, I think it was a great game of rugby, but we’re over the moon to get the win,” Sharks captain Patrick Lambie said. “We couldn’t quite put the Brumbies away and thankfully we were the ones who scored last.”
In the fourth game, the Southern Kings from South Africa defeated the Sunwolves 37-23 in Singapore.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB