The Christchurch-based Crusaders won their sixth consecutive match yesterday to begin the Super Rugby season, defeating the New South Wales Waratahs 41-22 to give New Zealand sides a clean sweep of four weekend matches.
The win moved the Crusaders into first place overall, ahead of two other unbeaten teams, the Chiefs and Stormers, who are 5-0.
The Chiefs roused themselves from a slow start for a 28-12 bonus-point win over the Vodacom Bulls, while the Stormers were never in danger against the Toyota Cheetahs, scoring eight tries in a 53-10 win.
Photo: AFP
In other sixth-round action between New Zealand and Australian teams, the defending champion Hurricanes were too slick for the Queensland Reds, winning 34-15, the Blues struggled before finally subduing the Western Force 24-15, and on Friday, the Highlanders outclassed the Melbourne Rebels 51-12.
At Sydney yesterday, the Crusaders led 19-10 at halftime, but struggled early in the second half as the Waratahs kept it close. However, the home side paid the price for a sloppy defensive display, missing 24 tackles in the first half and allowing two soft tries from line-out losses.
The Crusaders have an unprecedented 10 consecutive wins over Australian sides stretching back to 2015. They will be able to rest on their laurels for at least a week — they have a seventh-round bye this weekend.
Photo: EPA
A late try by Lions flanker Jaco Kriel settled a titanic South African derby against the Cell C Sharks in Johannesburg. The Lions won 34-29 in a game that swung back and forth before replacement Kwagga Smith burst away and put fellow loose forward Kriel clear down the right wing in the 76th minute.
The Chiefs trailed 9-3 after a scrappy first half at home against the Bulls, but took the lead for the first time with wing Shaun Stevenson’s try in the 48th minute, and clinched a bonus point with tries in the last 10 minutes from Damian McKenzie and Atu Moli.
“We asked the boys for a bit of a mental shift at half time and they obviously responded,” Chiefs captain Aaron Cruden said.
Sikhumbuzo Notshe scored three tries and wing Dillyn Leyds added two to lead the Stormers to their convincing win over the Cheetahs.
In Johannesburg, the Sharks led the Lions 13-3 with an early try from prop Coenie Oosthuizen, who thundered down the middle of the field after supporting a break from wing Kobus van Wyk. A yellow card for lock Etienne Oosthuizen let the Lions back in the game, with the home team scoring 14 points while the Sharks were down to 14 men. The Lions then went out to a 23-16 lead.
The momentum changed again as Sharks flyhalf Curwin Bosch kicked a huge penalty from well inside his own half to edge the Durban-based team ahead near the end. Opposite number Elton Jantjies leveled at 29-29 before the try from Kriel extended the Lions’ winning run at its Ellis Park home to nine games in Super Rugby.
“That was fantastic, thoroughly enjoyable,” Lions captain Warren Whiteley said.
“We play rugby for games like these. We probably had it a bit easy in our previous games. This was really a fight,” he added.
Australia’s Plus500 Brumbies, Argentina’s Jaguares, Japan’s HITO-Communications Sunwolves and South Africa’s Southern Kings had weekend byes.
Champions Cup
AFP, DUBLIN
Irish provinces Leinster and Munster both enjoyed home wins on Saturday in the quarter-finals of the European Rugby Champions Cup.
Three-times European kings Leinster saw off England’s Wasps 32-17 in Saturday’s opening last-eight clash at Dublin’s Aviva Stadium.
Munster, who have won two European titles, then overcame four-times champions Toulouse with a 41-16 defeat of the French giants at Limerick’s Thomond Park.
Leinster will have an away semi-final against the winners of yesterday’s all-French clash between Clermont and Toulon.
Other quarter-final’s yesterday saw reigning champions Saracens, also the English title-holders, welcome Glasgow to north London.
Wasps’ South Africa back Willie Le Roux made an extraordinary error as two-time European champions Wasps, the premiership leaders, to deprive his side of an important early try.
After fine work by Australia’s Kurtley Beale, Le Roux was sent clear with the line at his mercy.
However, with no Leinster defender near him, the Springbok opted for a needless dive over the line only to lose control of the ball, with his score disallowed.
It proved a costly error for Wasps who saw Irish province Leinster, table-toppers in the Celtic League, score three first-half tries through Isa Nacewa, Jack Conan and Robbie Henshaw.
However, two Wasps tries in seven second-half minutes from the speedy Christian Wade and Jimmy Gopperth brought the visitors back into contention as the game reached the hour mark.
However, Leinster regrouped and Fergus McFadden’s try five minutes from time sealed victory in a match where Ireland fly-half Jonathan Sexton kicked 12 points.
Wasps coach Dai Young tried to downplay Le Roux’s error by insisting it was early enough in the game not to have been the decisive moment of the match.
“Willie, obviously, it’s going to be well documented... If he had put that ball down, we could have been 10-8 up. We would have been pretty pleased with that, because we were under pressure,” Young said.
“I think it may have calmed us down a little bit, but I know a lot of people will point to that as a turning factor,” the former Wales and British and Irish Lions prop added.
“It certainly didn’t help us, but I’m not saying it was a turning factor because we had 55 minutes to play. We had plenty of time to turn that around,” he said.
Leinster started with an inexperienced back line, while Wasps fielded an international class back three of Beale, Christian Wade and Le Roux.
However, that did not stop Leinster racing into an early lead, with 21-year-old fullback Joey Carbery central to everything they did well in what had been billed as an “audition” for the upcoming Lions tour of New Zealand.
“Joey is very, very brave,” Leinster head coach Leo Cullen said. “He’s not afraid to try things.”
Munster, who in October last year were left mourning Anthony Foley after their coach died suddenly on the eve of a Champions Cup pool match in Paris, outscored Toulouse by four tries to one as they reached a first semi-final in Europe’s elite club competition in three years.
However, Munster were just 13-9 in front at half time, thanks to John Ryan’s early try.
Ireland’s CJ Stander crossed in the second half before Paul Perez’s breakaway try cut Munster’s lead to 24-16.
Munster put the result beyond doubt with two late tries from Darren Sweetnam and Andrew Conway as Toulouse chased the game.
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