A record-equalling victory for the Queensland Reds and a hard-earned win for the Canterbury Crusaders kept the established order intact after the ninth round of the Super 15 championship.
The Western Stormers remained the front-running South African side but their inability to secure a bonus point against the lowly Central Cheetahs saw them overtaken by the Auckland Blues as the third-best performing side.
Only two points separate the top four teams with Australia’s Reds equal with the Crusaders from New Zealand on 35 but credited with topping the table by having lost just one of eight games while the Crusaders have a loss and a draw.
In the past two weeks both sides have disposed of defending champions the Northern Bulls, who currently hover in eighth place.
The Reds followed the Crusaders’ 27-0 triumph by scoring six tries in their 39-30 win over the Bulls in Brisbane.
Halves Will Genia and Quade Cooper featured strongly as the young Reds outfit played an expansive attacking game to move the big Bulls forward pack around the field.
Although the Bulls drew first blood with an early Morne Steyn penalty, the Reds set the tone for the rest of the encounter when Cooper scored the opening try soon after by throwing a huge dummy pass and strolling over under the posts.
The Crusaders picked up their bonus point try against the Waikato Chiefs just before fulltime in a hard-earned 34-16 win that was much closer than the scoreline indicated.
The red-and-blacks continue to dominate the competition statistics with more points than any other side (240) and conceded fewer (109) while Sean Maitland stretched his lead as the top try scorer with his eighth touchdown.
The Stormers needed a 79th minute try by replacement wing Johann Sadie to make sure of a 33-19 win over the Golden Lions at Ellis Park.
It took desperate defence by the Stormers to prevent the bottom-of-the-table Lions from scoring what could have proved an equalising try before they were able to break out and Sadie scored under the posts.
A thoroughly dominant first half allowed the Blues to crush the NSW Waratahs 31-17.
The Blues had their bonus-point try within 26 minutes and led 31-7 at half-time before the Waratahs rallied to control the second half while the Aucklanders showed signs of inconsistency which have plagued them in the past.
The Otago Highlanders turned on a ruthless display of attacking rugby to destroy the Melbourne Rebels 40-18 to move up to fifth place on the ladder.
But the win came at a price with Colin Slade, seen as the leading contender to be Dan Carter’s flyhalf understudy, suffering another broken jaw.
The luckless Slade had only been back for two matches after missing the first six rounds of the competition and is likely to miss the rest of the season.
At the halfway stage of the competition, the Reds, Crusaders, Stormers, Blues, Highlanders and Coastal Sharks fill the six play-off berths.
Further down the field the Wellington Hurricanes improved to 10th when a last-minute try by lock Jeremy Thrush clinched a 50-47 win over the Central Cheetahs in an 11-try thriller where the lead changed 12 times.
The ACT Brumbies are to play the Western Force in Canberra late on Sunday. – AFP