The New South Wales Waratahs yesterday kept their Super Rugby finals dream alive by beating the Melbourne Rebels, but the Blues squandered a late penalty to all but end their chance of making the playoffs.
The Sydney-based Waratahs have been dominant against the Rebels recently and their bruising 20-15 win in Melbourne was their sixth in a row over their archrivals.
It moved them up to 30 points in the Australian conference with two games to play, four behind the Rebels and Brumbies, who face the Sunwolves in Tokyo today.
In Auckland, the Blues ground out a 22-22 draw with the Bulls.
They were both desperate for a win but the result suits the Bulls better, lifting them to second in the South African conference behind the Jaguares, at least temporarily, on 34 points.
That puts them in the mix for a playoff berth, but the Blues still sit outside the overall top eight on 28 points and their dream of making the finals for the first time since 2011 is as good as dead.
The Waratahs got the opening points, with Adam Ashley-Cooper finishing a flowing backline move and Bernard Foley kicking the conversion.
A Quade Cooper penalty reduced the deficit, but it was quickly canceled out by two penalty-kicks by Foley after sloppy Rebels errors.
The Waratahs had all the possession, but the hosts settled down and in an intense period Curtis Rona made a try-saving tackle on the Rebels’ Marika Koroibete, then Richard Hardwick and Cooper both had tries disallowed.
They went to the break with the Waratahs 13-3 ahead, before the Rebels finally got a deserved reward nine minutes after the restart with Cooper dotting down.
Rona quickly got another try for the visitors as the game heated up before Will Genia gathered an offload from Koroibete for a five-pointer to set up a nervy finish.
In Auckland, each side scored three tries in a match that only sparked to life in the second half, when torrential rain at Eden Park finally eased.
“We’re in a tough spot, we’ll take this as a loss,” Blues captain Patrick Tuipulotu said.
“We wanted a win with a bonus try, but unfortunately couldn’t do that. It’s been a tough year, but we’ve improved a lot,” he added.
The Bulls entered the match as underdogs, having lost 11 of their past 12 matches on the Blues’ home turf and missing key players Duane Vermeulen and Handre Pollard.
Any points were welcome in a tight race for the finals, stand-in skipper Burger Odendaal said.
“It’s a bittersweet one,” he said. “We really wanted to put it through tonight, but in the end we’re basically happy with a draw.”
Hanro Liebenberg scored the opening try when the Bulls patiently worked through 11 phases.
Blues prop Ofa Tu’ungafasi got one back soon after, crashing over after a run from Akira Ioane to put the hosts 10-8 ahead at halftime.
Scott Scrafton extended the Blues’ lead with a try before Bulls winger Cornal Hendricks made it 15-15 after chasing his own chip-kick down the sideline.
Tit-for-tat tries to Akira Ioane and Manie Libbok again leveled the score with four minutes left, with the Blues missing a drop goal in the 79th minute then Harry Plummer sending a penalty-kick wide after the siren to blow their chances of a win.
Ademola Lookman on Thursday scored on his Atletico Madrid debut in a 5-0 rout of Real Betis Balompie that sent Diego Simeone’s team to the semi-finals of the Copa del Rey. David Hancko, Giuliano Simeone, Antoine Griezmann and Thiago Almada also scored for Atletico as they advanced to the last four for the third straight season. Atletico are trying to reach their first Copa final since winning the competition in 2012-2013. Hancko opened the scoring for the visitors in the 12th minute and Giuliano Simeone added to the lead in the 30th, before Lookman got his first goal for Atletico on a fast
GUNNING FOR A WIN: The victory sending Arsenal to the final for the first time in six years was cathartic for a team who had lost their previous four semi-finals Arsenal on Tuesday reached the League Cup final for the first time in eight years as Kai Havertz sealed a 1-0 win against Chelsea in the semi-final second leg. Mikel Arteta’s side had put themselves in pole position in the first leg and Havertz came off the bench to finish the 4-2 aggregate victory in the closing moments at the Emirates Stadium. It was a cathartic triumph for the Gunners, who had lost their previous four semi-finals in last year’s UEFA Champions League and League Cup, the 2022 League Cup and the 2021 UEFA Europa League. In their first final for six years,
SUPERSTAR DELIVERS: Victor Wembanyama scored 29 points and pulled down 11 rebounds to propel the Spurs to a 135-123 victory over the Dallas Mavericks The Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday shook off the early exit of injured star Luka Doncic, rallying without him in the second half for a 119-115 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers. Austin Reaves, again coming off the bench in his second game back from a 19-game injury absence, scored 13 of his 35 points in the fourth quarter, drilling a pair of back-to-back three-pointers to give the Lakers their first lead of the game early in the final frame. “Losing Luka, you know nothing’s going to be easy after that because he does so much for us, but we bonded together,” said
France head coach Fabien Galthie on Thursday lauded his team’s attacking performance after their dazzling 36-14 victory over Ireland in their Six Nations opener. A brace of tries from Louis Bielley-Biarrey and one from mercurial flyhalf Matthieu Jalibert helped France storm into a 29-0 lead before taking their foot off the gas and allowing Ireland back into the match, before winger Theo Attissogbe put some gloss on the victory late on. “In an attacking sense, with the ball, the team played with great accuracy,” Galthie said. “It was one of the most accurate attacking performances in a long time, despite the weather
RSS