The business end of Super 14 already

Not much changed at the weekend.

Leaders the Crusaders came off their bye with a sound thrashing of the Lions 31-6 in Christchurch, and the Stormers jumped into top four contention with a 34-22 win over the Cheetahs in Cape Town.

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The Stormers allowed the Cheetahs a three-try second half fightback, while the Crusaders waited until the second half to really get going. This was consistent with the Crusaders’ winning pattern, a ruthlessness in what they call “the championship minutes”, and also typical of the Stormers who have struggled to put teams away all year.

The Blues coughed up another hairball on New Zealand’s rug, losing 11-16 to the Brumbies on Eden Park. This confirmed the suspicions of those who had watched the Blues have some very squeaky results almost fall into their lap this year, and concluded that their table position was as high as it was likely to get. But against the Brumbies, a team that the Chiefs had walloped in Canberra only a week ago? Not many picked the downhill slide to begin with this week’s fixture.

It was a self-inflicted litany of handling errors committed and penalties conceded once again for the three-time former champions. The backs were forced into a game of catch-up rugby by the untidy pack in front of them. Passes were pushed, and as usual possession was not guarded as jealously as it should have been. The Brumbies accepted the free ball on offer and began to look quite fluid towards the end of the match.

The Chiefs’ 42-28 Canberra result may now be better assessed in context.

The Chiefs had their bye and watched four teams leap-frog them, the Hurricanes to third, Waratahs to fourth, Force to sixth and Stormers to seventh. They now face the Crusaders and Reds in Hamilton before a road trip through Perth, Johannesburg and Durban takes them to the end of round robin. If the form they showed in Canberra holds they will be a handful for anyone, even the Crusaders, but this was a bad week to have the enforced break seeing as their momentum had been building so well.

The Highlanders lost 17-19 to the Sharks on Friday at Carisbrook, leaving all Southern lovers of rugby forlorn and all those who think the Sharks are over-rated gnashing their teeth once again.

The home side had chances to steal the victory, leading 17-11 at half-time but playing out a scoreless second half and watching late (easy) shots at goal sail wide. The losing habit is hard to break.

The Sharks for their part were unimpressive. This was a game lost by the Highlanders more than it was a winning performance from their South African visitors. Their high position on the table is about to come under real pressure. They play matches in Canberra, Sydney and Christchurch before returning to face the Cheetahs and Chiefs in Durban.

It would have been a pretty dismal weekend for New Zealand if the Hurricanes hadn’t pulled one of their occasional rabbits out of the hat and bamboozled the Bulls in Pretoria.

Right from the opening whistle they put on a sparkling exhibition of modern rugby. The pace of play left their hosts gasping and the Loftus Versfeld crowd a little confused. The crowd began in typical high veldt fashion, hurling a torrent of abuse and vegetable matter at the visiting team by way of welcome, but ended up screaming twice as loudly at their own team and leaving in droves with ten minutes remaining, after the Hurricanes’ seven-try display exposed an obvious lack of defensive commitment.

The Hurricanes at one stage were reduced to thirteen men after some cunning professional fouls, and this began a brief period where the Bulls nearly clawed their way back into the match, but the game ended as it began with the athletic New Zealanders running the stolid Africans off their feet.

It put the Hurricanes into third place. Next week they face the Stormers in Cape Town, a match that will certainly have a significant bearing on the play-off race but is mainly just a humdinger to look forward to. After that they have the Cheetahs in Kimberley, two matches at home against the Lions and Force, then finish at Eden Park against the Blues in a game that may very well eliminate either or both teams from semifinal contention.

The best match for drama this weekend was a 17-12 thriller won by the Waratahs in Perth. With Matt Giteau knocked unconscious early and a hastily rearranged backline making do without him, the Force were far less potent on attack than they normally are. The Waratahs closed them down with a dogged eighty-minute tackling drill, and scored tries in two of their rare periods on attack inside the Force’s twenty-two.

The match clock appeared broken, stalled on 78:47 for a few desperate phases, and with a string of penalties against the Waratahs keeping the frantic crowd on the edge of their seats, play continued for three or four minutes after the hooter sounded.

If the Waratahs end up making the semifinals, or even being the other team in Christchurch for the final, they will look back on these last two weeks’ results as crucial. Under huge pressure off the field and facing two handy teams on it, they have come up with the sort of character-building wins that coaches mould very good sides from.

Ewen McKenzie is in Paris as I write this, talking to Stade Francais about a possible position as their head coach. Any discussions about his salary will not have been harmed by his team’s gutsy displays in the last fortnight.

The Waratahs finish with the Lions and Sharks in Sydney, then the Bulls, Stormers and Reds on the road… not the worst draw, and on current form they wouldn’t be a bad bet for holding their top four spot.

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