Jordie Barrett starred yesterday as the Hurricanes overran the Chiefs in a Super Rugby try-fest, while the New South Wales Waratahs were upset at home by the Sharks for the first time since 2000.
Barrett celebrated a return to his favored fullback position with two touchdowns in the opening six minutes as the ’Canes won 47-19 at Wellington in a game that witnessed 10 tries.
In Sydney, South Africa’s Sharks beat the Tahs 23-15, with Jed Holloway’s red card for an elbow to the head early in the second half a turning point after they were locked 10-10 going into the break.
The win moved the Sharks top of a tight South African conference.
Barrett’s blazing start set the standard for the Hurricanes in a game played at a frantic pace, with attacking favored over defense.
“We did the simple things well,” Hurricanes captain T.J. Perenara said. “That was one of the better games we have played of late.”
The Hurricanes raced to a 21-0 lead inside 16 minutes before the Chiefs were able to get on the board, with the bonus point win keeping them second in the New Zealand conference behind the Canterbury Crusaders.
Barrett scored his first try with a well-timed run into the backline in the fourth minute.
Play had barely restarted when he was over again, carving through an ineffectual defense.
When the Chiefs closed to 28-19 early in the second half with a Lachlan Boshier try, Barrett engineered two more for the Hurricanes.
In Sydney, the Waratahs, re-energized by a gritty come-from-behind win against the Rebels last week, were in contention until Holloway lost the plot.
“Really proud of the boys, our defense was outstanding,” Sharks captain Tendai Mtawarira said.
Bernard Foley gave the Waratahs the lead after seven minutes with an easy penalty, before Daniel du Preez dived over between the posts for his sixth try of the season.
The Sharks dominated possession, but the Waratahs got back in the game when Jake Gordon grabbed the ball from a ruck and offloaded to Curtis Rona, who drew in a defender and passed back to Gordon, who sprinted to the line.
A Sekope Kepu high tackle handed the Sharks’ Curwin Bosch a penalty chance, which he converted, to level the game before the second stanza started with a bang.
Five minutes in and Thomas du Toit grabbed Holloway’s jersey, preventing him from chasing a ball, and the big lock retaliated by swinging his elbow into the South African’s head. It was a straight red offense, with Du Toit copping a yellow card.
Six minutes later and Jack Dempsey was sent to the sin bin for dangerous play, leaving the Waratahs with just 13 players.
It cost them dearly, with Andre Esterhuizen bursting through the defense for a try and Bosch kicking the conversion and two penalties.
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