Bulls, Cheetahs early losers
2006-03-31 14:56
Sydney - South African sides got off to a poor start in the eighth round of rugby's Super 14 competition, losing both early matches Friday in Auckland and Sydney.
Stand-in flyhalf Isa Nacewa scored 15 points and brought new direction to the struggling Auckland Blues in a 30-17 win over the Bulls at Eden Park. The New South Wales Waratahs stayed in first place in the competition, holding out the Cheetahs at Aussie Stadium in Sydney with a late-burst, 26-3 win.
There was still hope for SA later on Friday in Perth, Western Australia, where the expansion - and winless - Western Force - took on the Cape Town-based Stormers. The Force led the Stormers 10-0 after the opening 20 minutes.
On Saturday, the second-place Hurricanes have a chance to stay level with the Waratahs when they face third-place Canterbury at Wellington, Waikato hosts fellow New Zealand side Otago at Hamilton, and the Sharks play the Queensland Reds in Durban, South Africa.
The fourth-place ACT Brumbies and South Africa's Cats had weekend byes.
Nacewa was moved from fullback to flyhalf as the Blues contended with serious problems of injury and form, providing the spark which lit their way out of their worst midseason slump in 11 years in the tournament.
The Blues fell to 11th place on the championship table with last week's record 43-9 loss to the New South Wales Waratahs and endured a week of calls for the sacking of key players and coaching staff.
"It's been a very hard week, we've been under a lot of pressure from media and stuff," captain Keven Mealamu said. "It was important to get a win for our coaches and ourselves and fortunately we did that."
The Blues gave the Bulls a cheap try in the 24th minute when they threw the ball directly to Bakkies Botha at a defensive line and allowed the former Springbok to simply walk over the tryline. Hooker Gary Botha scored the Bulls' second try 10 minutes from full time.
Fullback Peter Hewat scored a try among 21 points in the Waratahs win. Hewat kept a perfect kicking record for the second match in a row, landing two conversions and four penalties to take his individual points tally for the season to 132.
His contribution helped disguise a mediocre performance by the competition leaders who were ahead 6-0 at halftime, 12-3 on penalties at three-quarter time and who took 71 minutes to score their first try.
Wallabies winger Wendell Sailor broke a try-scoring deadlock when he stepped through weak defense near the goal line for his fourth try of the season with about nine minutes left. Hewat made the scoreline respectable with a hallmark intercept try five minutes later.
Summaries:
New South Wales 26 (Peter Hewat, Wendell Sailor tries: Hewat 2 conversions, 4 penalties), Cheetahs 3 (Willem De Waal penalty).
Auckland 30 (John Senio, Nick Williams, Viliame Waqaseduadua tries; Isa Nacewa 3 conversions, 3 penalties), Bulls 17 (Bakkies Botha, Gary Botha tries; Derick Hougaard 2 conversions, penalty).
- SAPA