Paul Williams scored all the Auckland Blues points as they ground out a 14-8 win over Western Stormers in a poor Super 14 match at Newlands on Saturday.
The son of All Blacks wing legend Bryan, who plays in the same position as his father, scored a try and kicked three penalties as the New Zealanders completed their two-match South African tour with a victory. It was a pleasant change from last weekend when a much weaker Blues team suffered a humiliating 33-point loss to Northern Bulls in a Pretoria meeting of former champions.
Wing Joe Rokocoko, scrum-half Taniela Moa and No. 8 Jerome Kaino returned from paternity leave for this game and performed adequately for an outfit that will perform better and lose. Scrum-half Ricky Januarie scored a try and fly-half Peter Grant kicked a penalty for the Stormers, suffering their second loss in three home matches and looking far from southern hemisphere title contenders.
PHOTO :EPA
Springbok Test venue Newlands has staged many memorable matches down the years, but this scrappy affair must rank among the worse matches seen in Cape Town for a long time. There were endless unforced errors by both teams and the restless home crowd resorted to booing on 65 minutes when Stormers wing Tonderai Chavhanga knocked on to spoil another promising back-line move.
Right at the death the home team could have snatched victory as a surge took them within meters of the Auckland line and attempts by Grant and center Jean de Villiers to cross came up just short. But amid the frenzied assault, stand-in South African referee Jonathan Kaplan spotted a knock-on and when the Blues won the scrum it was all over for the 35,000 suffering spectators.
“This was a really tough game and I’m happy to finish our tour with a win — 10 points from three matches on the road in Australia and South Africa is good going,” Blues hooker and skipper Keven Mealamu said.
Grant kicked a penalty, Williams crossed the line in the first serious Blues attack, Januarie latched on to his kick ahead to put the Stormers back in front and Williams leveled at 8-8 before halftime with his first penalty.
He edged the Blues in front with another penalty on 52 minutes in perfect conditions and a high tackle by Andries Bekker on Michael Hobbs led to a late shot at goal that Williams placed between the posts.
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
The Minnesota Timberwolves, with so many promising performances spoiled by late mistakes fresh in their memory bank, sure timed this strong finish well. Jaden McDaniels scored a career playoff-high 30 points and spearheaded Minnesota’s stifling defense on an ailing Luka Doncic, and the Timberwolves beat the Los Angeles Lakers 116-104 to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference first-round series in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Friday night. “Jaden never looks tired. He looks like he could play 48 minutes,” said teammate Anthony Edwards, who had 29 points, eight rebounds and eight assists. Julius Randle added 22 points for the Wolves, who outscored
Inter’s defense of their Italian Serie A title was hit with a setback on Sunday as they lost 1-0 at home to AS Roma, while Scott McTominay netted a brace as SSC Napoli beat Torino 2-0 to go top of the table. No fixtures were played on Friday or Saturday because of the funeral of Pope Francis in Rome, meaning the full round of Serie A matches took place on Sunday and yesterday. Matias Soule’s first-half strike for Roma knocked Inter off top spot earlier in the day before new Napoli opened up a three-point buffer with victory in Sunday’s
Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa yesterday set a women’s only world record of 2 hours, 15 minutes, 50 seconds as she won the London Marathon, while Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe put a star-studded men’s field to the sword. For 28-year-old Assefa it was ample compensation for finishing runner-up in London and the Paris Olympics last year — especially as bitter Dutch rival, the Ethiopia-born Sifan Hassan, finished third. Assefa dropped Kenya’s Joyciline Jepkosgei as the race, played out in blazing sunshine and with thousands lining the route, entered its business end. She came home almost three minutes clear of the Kenyan. Hassan, who beat her in
RSS