Canterbury Crusaders of New Zealand beat the Golden Lions of South Africa 32-20 on Friday to keep alive their hopes of reaching the Super 14 semi-finals.
Coming off a shock defeat at the hands of the Central Cheetahs in Bloemfontein last weekend, the defending champions ran in four tries at Ellis Park to collect a maximum five points. Victory moves the Crusaders into fourth place with 32 points, while Lions’ eighth defeat kept them in 12th position.
The Crusaders were first to score after a good counterattack from deep in their own half resulted in lock Isaac Ross crossing and fullback Leon MacDonald converting the try. The Lions hit back soon after when scrumhalf Jano Vermaak dived over after good work by flyhalf Andre Pretorius, who hacked the ball ahead when Canterbury lost possession. Pretorius leveled the scores by converting and midway through the opening half the Lions edged ahead via a second try as debutant flanker Johann van Deventer powered past three defenders, displaying pace and nifty footwork to go over.
PHOTO: EPA
Although behind on the scoreboard, the Crusaders did most of the attacking and it was not long before they struck again.
Lions fullback Louis Ludik had a clearance kick charged down by Stephen Brett, who reclaimed the ball and darted over. MacDonald added the conversion and knocked over a penalty to give the visitors a 17-12 advantage before, on the stroke of halftime, Pretorius reduced the deficit to two points when he slotted a penalty.
The Crusaders threatened early in the second half and, while they squandered a few try-scoring opportunities, the pressure finally told when lock Brad Thorn crashed over on 62 minutes. MacDonald converted the try, but when it appeared the Crusaders were going to run away with the game, the Lions hit back to score against the run of play.
Lock Anton van Zyl excelled close to the left touchline to kick the ball into open space behind the New Zealand backs, collect the ball and score to close the gap to four points.
However, the hosts hopes of the match going down to the wire were dashed just two minutes later when a well-worked Crusaders line-out ploy saw replacement hooker Dan Perrin run in his team’s bonus-point try and give them a 29-20 lead with 13 minutes remaining.
MacDonald completed the scoring with a second penalty.
■CHEETAHS 10, WARATAHS 18
AFP, BLOEMFONTEIN
Australian side New South Wales Waratahs climbed four places to fourth in the Super 14 table after a 18-10 win over South Africa’s Central Cheetahs on Friday.
The bottom-of-the-table Cheetahs started and finished well while squandering try-scoring chances, but the rest of the match was dominated by the visitors.
The Waratahs dominance was particularly noticeable in the scrums where loose head Benn Robinson gave opponent Kobus Caldo a torrid time until the Cheetah was replaced late in the second half.
Wallaby Phil Waugh stood out in the loose exchanges on his record 108th appearance for the Sydney-based team, winning numerous turnovers before a sparse Absa Stadium crowd.
The Cheetahs reserved their best form this season for the best with the wins in the southern hemisphere championship coming against then leaders the Coastal Sharks and title holders Canterbury Crusaders. However, the blue shirts of title hopefuls Waratahs did not inspire the traditional Super 14 strugglers and their lone try from replacement back J.W. Jonker came just two minutes from time.
A blow for the Australians was the first-half loss of injured Wallaby wing Lote Tuqiri as they face tougher opposition in the Sharks and Golden Lions on the rest of a South African safari.
Taiwan’s men’s table tennis team won bronze on Saturday at this year’s International Table Tennis Federation World Team Table Tennis Championships in London, matching the country’s best-ever finish at the regular tournament. Consisting of Lin Yun-ju, Taiwan’s top-ranked player at world No. 7, Feng Yi-hsin, Kuo Guan-hong, Hong Jing-kai and Hsu Hsien-chia, the team won bronze after losing 0-3 to Japan in the semifinals. In the opening match, 24-year-old Lin played the first game against world No. 3 Tomokazu Harimoto 11-5, but ultimately lost the next three closely contested games 9-11, 10-12 and 10-12. Feng then faced world No. 8 Sora Matsushima in
Lin Yun-ju on Thursday handed Taiwan two key victories as they advanced to the semi-finals of the ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships Finals in London. The Taiwan men’s table tennis team beat Sweden 3-2 in five singles matches. The 24-year-old Lin, Taiwan’s top-ranked player at world No. 7 and nicknamed the “Silent Assassin,” opened the tie by defeating world No. 2 Truls Moregard 3-0 (11-8, 11-9, 13-11) before clinching the deciding fifth match with a 3-0 (11-8, 11-9, 11-5) win over Anton Kallberg to hand his team the overall victory. Kuo Guan-hong put Taiwan up 2-0 with a 3-2 (4-11, 11-8, 8-11,
Taiwanese fire dancer Yang Li-wei advanced to the final of Britain’s Got Talent this weekend after receiving a Golden Buzzer during her live semi-final performance. Yang, a member of Taiwan’s Coming True Fire Group, awed judges and audiences with a high-intensity fire performance featuring flaming umbrellas, fire swallowing and spinning metal structures balanced with her legs. Judge Simon Cowell praised Yang as a star, while guest judge KSI reacted with amazement before pressing the Golden Buzzer, sending her to the finals. The dance group wrote on social media that the Golden Buzzer was “the highest honor” on the talent show, adding: “Twenty-three years
As Super Rugby fast approaches its playoff season it finds itself racing toward a reckoning with many issues that threaten the southern hemisphere tournament. A group of stakeholders met in the New Zealand city of Christchurch late last month to address problems that are making the future of the 31-year-old competition increasingly tenuous. The discussion was made more urgent by the decision by the owners of Moana Pasifika to fold the Auckland-based club for financial reasons. That followed the closure of the Melbourne Rebels at the end of the 2024 season, likewise because of financial difficulties. Problems addressed included player retention as more
RSS