Dan Carter celebrated his return from injury with a try and two conversions to guide New Zealand’s Canterbury Crusaders to a 27-21 win over Australia’s Queensland Reds in the Super 14 at Brisbane on Saturday. The Crusaders scored 19 unanswered points in the last 13 minutes after trailing 21-8 to ensure they finish the regular season in first place.
The Cheetahs claimed their first Super 14 win of the season and moved off the bottom of the table by defeating the Queensland Reds 29-14 on Saturday. The Bloemfontein-based franchise also snatched a bonus point when centre JW Jonker scored a breakaway stoppage-time try at a sparsely populated Absa Stadium.
Rugby body Sanzar will investigate an official Queensland Reds complaint that the Sharks fielded an extra man for more than two minutes in their Super 14 clash in Durban last weekend. But Sanzar’s Peter Rowles does not expect Queensland to receive a bonus point if a teleconference on Wednesday confirms the Sharks used a 16th man.
The Sharks moved up to second in the Super 14 after a pair of second-half tries secured a 22-10 victory over the Queensland Reds on Saturday. The South Africans touched down in the 63rd and 67th minutes, breaking a determined Reds defence that was put under relentless pressure.
The Reds scored a converted try in the dying seconds of their Super 14 match against the Lions at Ellis Park on Saturday to snatch a lucky 24-all draw. The result meant that no South African side could win a match in this weekend’s round of matches. The visitors came back from an 11-point deficit to take two points from the match.
Under-fire Queensland Reds bounded out of the Super 14 rugby doldrums with a 40-8 demolition of fading champions the Northern Bulls of South Africa in Brisbane on Saturday. The Reds cashed in with five tries for their first bonus-point victory in the southern-hemisphere competition in four years.
The Stormers climbed off the bottom of the Super 14 rugby standings with an bonus-point 34-16 win over Australian strugglers Queensland Reds in Brisbane on Saturday. The Cape Town-based team played enterprising rugby to come away with four tries in their third straight win in Brisbane and the sixth win in their past 10 games in Australia.
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/ 18 December 2007
Wallaby fullback Chris Latham will move to English Premiership side Worcester later this year after rejecting an offer to remain in Australia, the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) said Tuesday. The ARU said it was disappointed at Latham’s decision to head to Europe on a three-year deal after the 2008 Tri-Nations series but respected it.
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/ 29 September 2007
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Wallabies winger Drew Mitchell continued his try-scoring feast at the World Cup with a double in Australia’s 37-6 victory over Canada on Saturday. Mitchell crossed twice in the second half to lift his tally for the tournament to seven tries from just four games, breaking David Campese’s Australian record for the most tries in a single World Cup with his six in 1991.
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/ 23 September 2007
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The Wallabies claimed top spot in group B with a fitful 55-12 win over Fiji to lock up a quarterfinal place at the Rugby World Cup at Stade de la Mosson in Montpellier on Sunday. The Australians always had the game under control, but it was an unsatisfying, error-strewn performance against the second-string Fijians.
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/ 15 September 2007
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Two-time champions Australia beat Wales 32-20 in a bruising World Cup clash at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff on Saturday to virtually make sure of avoiding South Africa in the last eight. The Wallabies, who had two players sin-binned late in the game, scored four tries but were pushed all the way by a spirited home side who had been on the ropes at 25-3 down at the break.
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/ 9 September 2007
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New Zealand and Australia scored a combined total of 167 points and 24 tries as the southern hemisphere giants ruthlessly exposed the huge gap in international rugby at the World Cup on Saturday. The All Blacks swept aside Italy, who had beaten both Wales and Scotland in the Six Nations this year, 76-14 while Australia crushed Japan 91-3.
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/ 8 September 2007
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Twice champions Australia showed they are starting to rediscover their best form at the perfect time by thrashing Japan 91-3 in their opening World Cup Pool B match on Saturday. Despite playing their first game in seven weeks, the Wallabies gave a brilliant display of open rugby to pile on 13 unanswered tries in their opening match of the tournament.
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/ 3 September 2007
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The great debate: Is this the Wallabies’ A team? Or merely the Wallabies’ A-frame team? That’s the question controversial Australian rugby columnist Greg Growden ask in his Monday Maul. It is impossible to avoid the fact that the Australian World Cup campaign revolves around those on their last Test legs, rather than those at the peak of their careers.