The All Blacks eased a public crisis of confidence on the weekend when they beat Australia 26-12 to win rugby’s Tri-Nations title. Until Saturday’s match at Eden Park, New Zealand had appeared to struggle under the weight of favouritism for this year’s Rugby World Cup in France, compiling a series of lacklustre performances.

The All Blacks left for South Africa on Sunday and a telling Tri-Nations clash with the Springboks feeling more contrite than confident after a stumbling 64-13 win over Canada. New Zealand looked anything like world champions in waiting as they took a 26-13 lead into half-time at Hamilton.

The Sharks and Bulls will host semifinals — the first playoff matches in South Africa in six years in Super rugby — after sealing first and second places on Saturday with massive last-round wins. The Sharks beat the Stormers 36-10 to finish atop the Super 14 standings with a 10-win, three-loss record, while the Bulls crushed the hapless Queensland Reds by a record 92-3.

One of the most heated rivalries in rugby’s Super 14 –- annual matches between Australian sides New South Wales and Queensland — will likely be a playoff for last place when it’s played Saturday in the 11th round. Queensland’s Reds have only seven points from nine matches this season and are mired in an eight-match losing streak stretching back to round one.

The ACT Brumbies broke the Sharks’ unbeaten run in rugby union’s Super 14, diverting attention from the return of New Zealand’s ”conditioned” World Cup All Blacks. The Brumbies beat the Sharks 21-10 on Saturday in Durban, halting the South African team’s winning streak at six games and depriving the competition of its only unbeaten team.

South African teams occupy the top two rungs on the Super 14 rugby ladder but their unaccustomed prominence will be challenged in the competition’s fourth round starting on Friday. The Durban-based Sharks are the only unbeaten team after three rounds and will sit out the fourth round, along with the New South Wales Waratahs.

The Wellington Hurricanes edged Auckland by a point in a thrilling local derby on Saturday to end the Blues’ unbeaten start to rugby union’s Super 14. The Hurricanes held on to a 23-22 lead for the last 19 minutes of a match in which the lead changed hands four times.

This proximity of year’s Rugby World Cup is expected both to add to and detract from the 2007 Super 14 competition which begins on Friday. Coaches from South Africa, Australia and New Zealand will use the competition to monitor the form of their established and fringe players ahead of finalising their World Cup squads.