An Aaron Cruden penalty on fulltime saw the struggling Wellington Hurricanes snatch an upset 28-26 victory from powerhouses the Queensland Reds in a home Super 15 match yesterday.
In only their third win of the season the Hurricanes knocked the Reds off the top of the ladder, while earning a bonus point for scoring four tries to lift themselves from 14th to eighth.
After running up a commanding 22-5 lead by halftime, the Hurricanes saw their dominance whittled away through the second spell and they eventually slipped behind 25-26 when Quade Cooper landed a 70th-minute penalty.
Photo: Reuters
Then, with time fast running out, they fought their way back into Reds territory, won a penalty 35m from the posts and Cruden made amends for an off night with the boot by landing the shot that gave them the win.
The victory was all the more memorable for captain Andrew Hore, who was celebrating his 100th Super Rugby game, as it was achieved without their star backs Ma’a Nonu, Conrad Smith and Cory Jane, who were all out injured.
“We’d sort of been written off, and we came out and played some good footy. When you look at the backline we finished off with, I think Hosea Gear had twice as many caps as the rest of them put together,” Hore said.
The Reds opened with a roar, with Will Chambers and Mike Harris opening up the novice Hurricanes backs with their first touch of the ball to set up Scott Higginbotham for a try with just over a minute on the clock, but the Reds were soon to learn they would not romp away with the game and instead quickly became flustered as the Hurricanes regrouped.
The home side mounted a constant wave of attacks and the Reds defense, which served them so well in holding out the Waratahs last week, could not combat the Hurricanes ability to offload in the tackle.
Faifili Levave, Cruden, Andre Taylor and Neemia Tialata all crashed over for tries and with Cruden landing one conversion, the Hurricanes piled on 22 unanswered points.
Tough talking from coach Ewan McKenzie at halftime resulted in the Reds clawing their way back into the game.
Two tries to Luke Morahan, one a superb 50m solo effort, coupled with a conversion and two penalties by Quade Cooper against one penalty by Cruden saw the Reds lead by one point in the countdown to the final whistle, but when Cruden, who had missed four shots at goal, had a chance to make amends on fulltime he made no mistake.
WARATAHS 28, REBELS 9
Reuters, SYDNEY
The New South Wales Waratahs kept their playoff hopes alive with a win in the wet over the Melbourne Rebels in their Super Rugby match in Sydney yesterday.
The Waratahs, who handed the competition newcomers a 43-0 trouncing in the first round, stifled the Rebels with a miserly defensive effort and ran over two tries in the last eight minutes on a rainy night at Sydney Football Stadium.
Fullback Kurtley Beale, who will join the Rebels next season, slotted three penalties and two conversions in a 13-point haul against his future teammates as the Rebels slumped to their seventh loss of the season.
Wallabies front-rower Tatafu Polota-Nau barged over the line for the Waratahs’ first try in the 12th minute, but the match then descended into a dour arm-wrestle as both teams struggled in the damp conditions.
Fullback Julian Huxley slotted two penaltys to cut the Rebels’ deficit to a point, but his direct opponent Beale added a penalty of his own in the 26th minute and the Waratahs held a 10-6 lead at halftime.
Danny Cipriani, who was demoted to the bench after his poor defensive skills were exposed over successive weeks, came on in the second half to miss a penalty that would have put the Rebels within a point with 20 minutes to play.
Beale gave the Waratahs’ breathing space with his third penalty a few minutes later, before Dave Dennis crossed to put his team 21-9 up with eight minutes left.
Following a textbook rolling maul that drove the Rebels back 15m, flanker Dennis broke a tackle before diving between an opponent’s legs and reaching an arm over the line at the right corner.
Mumm clambered over at the same corner in the 80th minute to complete the Waratahs’ sixth win of the season, a victory soured slightly by a second-half clash of heads that knocked Polota-Nau unconscious.
CHEETAHS 47, BRUMBIES 36
AFP, BLOEMFONTEIN
The Central Cheetahs won at home for the first time this season in the Super 15 with a win over the ACT Brumbies of Australia on Friday.
The second triumph of the season for the southern hemisphere championship franchise from Bloemfontein lifted them to within two points of their Canberra adversaries.
The Cheetahs seem to enjoy Australian opposition as their previous victory this year came in Sydney last month when they stunned the Waratahs 23-3 to record a first Super Rugby success in Australia.
Like so many Cheetahs matches, there was no shortage of scoring, with each team crossing the tryline four times during a first half that ended with the Cheetahs 32-26 ahead on a cold autumn evening.
Props Coenie Oosthuizen and W.P. Nel were among the Cheetahs to dot down, while Brumbies loosehead Ben Alexander also claimed a try during a half in which the defenses were often breached far too easily.
Brumbies did well not to be too far behind at the break after twice trailing by 25 points against opponents who took just 82 seconds to go ahead via a drop-goal from Riaan Viljoen.
The fullback repeated the achievement midway through the first half, leading flyhalf Sias Ebersohn to try and match the feat several times without success before a small crowd who watched a lively, if somewhat unstructured encounter.
After the first-half try fest, only one more was scored during the second 40 minutes when replacement Robbie Coleman sprinted over in the corner for the visitors and center Matt Giteau converted to cut the deficit to five points.
The Cheetahs have suffered narrow defeats so often this season that coach Naka Drotske would have been forgiven if he had feared the worst for a side that scored 47 points in a recent home game and still lost, but there was to be no late collapse this time and two Ebersohn penalties inside the final 10 minutes saw the Cheetahs safely home.
Scrumhalf Sarel Pretorius scored the other two Cheetahs tries. Ebersohn contributed 21 points from three conversions and five penalties, while Viljoen used his boot to good effect with those two drop-goals.
Left wing Francis Fainifo, Alexander, flank Michael Hooper, right wing Adam Ashley-Cooper and Coleman were the Brumbies try scorers, while Giteau kicked four conversions and a penalty.
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