Queensland Reds will have faced a major test of their Super Rugby title credentials with a showdown against seven-time champions Canterbury Crusaders.
Queensland Reds coach Ewen McKenzie refuses to get carried away with his team’s start to the season despite recording a fifth successive win.
The Reds broke the Chiefs’ unbeaten Super 14 run with a surprise 23-18 win in Hamilton Friday.
The Crusaders and Waratahs face off in a classic showdown for the Super 14 rugby crown in Christchurch, New Zealand, on Saturday. ”It’s going to be an epic,” said Crusaders coach Robbie Deans, the most successful coach in the history of Super rugby. In a match laden with All Blacks and Wallabies, Waratahs assistant coach Steve Tuynman sees the final as one for the purists.
Ewen McKenzie rates Saturday’s Super 14 rugby final as the ultimate challenge as he pits his wits against the Canterbury Crusaders’ incoming Wallabies coach Robbie Deans. The NSW Waratahs coach has put behind a season of off-field turmoil to steer the Sydney team to their second Super rugby final.
The Canterbury Crusaders and New South Wales Waratahs won their way to rugby’s Super 14 final, creating an emotional showdown for retiring coaches Robbie Deans and Ewen McKenzie. Deans guided the Crusaders to a 33-22 win on Saturday over the Wellington Hurricanes, their 10th final in 13 years of Super tournament rugby — and Deans can now bow out with his fifth and their seventh championship title.
Canterbury Crusaders coach Robbie Deans has urged his weary players to stay on track for a seventh Super 14 rugby title when they play their semifinal on Saturday against the Wellington Hurricanes. The Crusaders have begun to look worn in recent weeks, but Deans hopes the onset of the play-offs will stimulate their fighting spirit in the match at Christchurch.
Injuries, coaching concerns and travel fatigue loom as significant factors in the Super 14 rugby semifinals when the Crusaders, Waratahs, Sharks and Hurricanes front up on Saturday. Competition leaders the Crusaders are at home to the Hurricanes in the first knock-out match, followed by the second-placed Waratahs hosting the Sharks in Sydney.
Departing Auckland Blues coach David Nucifora will take up the position of the Australian rugby Union’s (ARU) high performance manager in June, ARU chief executive John O’Neill told reporters in Sydney on Wednesday. The former Wallabies hooker will replace Pat Howard, who returned to Australia last year after a successful stint with English club side Leicester Tigers.
The New South Wales Waratahs face the toughest task of the nine teams remaining in semifinal contention when the penultimate round of rugby’s Super 14 begins on Friday. The second-placed Waratahs face the fourth-placed Stormers in Cape Town in a match that bears heavily on their semifinal chances.
Rassie Erasmus is a name synonymous with rat-cunning unpredictability in rugby. And if the Waratahs are to beat his Stormers side in their Super 14 clash at Newlands on Saturday, they know they will have to crack the mindset of the coach before they can break his players.
South Africa’s Coastal Sharks face a moment of truth against the toughest team in rugby’s Super 14 when they put their chances of a home play-off on the line against the Canterbury Crusaders in Christchurch on Friday. The Sharks are feeling the effects of five demanding weeks on the road in Australia and New Zealand.
Leaders Canterbury Crusaders and the Sharks will be under extra scrutiny this weekend about how they react to last week’s first defeats in rugby’s Super 14 series. The moody Auckland Blues are bracing for a backlash from the chastened Crusaders, whose unbeaten eight-match record was unceremoniously ended by the Waikato Chiefs in Hamilton.
The New South Wales Waratahs cemented their place in the top four of the Super 14 with a scrappy 26-3 win over the Lions in Sydney on Saturday. The Waratahs overwhelmed their South African opponents in the second period after both sides had played out a mistake-ridden scoreless first half in wet and windy conditions.
The Sharks believe their efforts to remain unbeaten in the Super 14 became more difficult when their 10th-round opponents, the ACT Brumbies, announced midweek that coach Laurie Fisher would not be re-hired for 2009. Super 14 tradition suggests that teams whose coaches are dismissed in the course of any season respond with an immediate form improvement.
The New South Wales Waratahs put a tumultuous week behind them to claim their first scoring bonus point of the season with a five-try spanking of the Auckland Blues in their Super 14 game on Saturday. The Waratahs gave their most accomplished performance of the season to down the third-placed Blues 37-16 to move into sixth place and press their semifinal claims.
The Sharks put their unbeaten record on the line in their opening Australasian tour match of the Super 14 rugby series against the Hurricanes in Wellington on Saturday. The Durban-based team, along with table-topping Canterbury Crusaders, are the only two teams yet to taste defeat in the southern hemisphere provincial competition.
New South Wales Waratahs coach Ewen McKenzie’s contract will not be renewed beyond this year’s Super 14 season, the state’s rugby chiefs announced on Tuesday. McKenzie’s five years at the helm will end in July even if the Waratahs win their first title in the southern hemisphere provincial competition, New South Wales Rugby Union chief executive Jim L’Estrange said.
Australia’s New South Wales Waratahs survived a late fightback from South Africa’s Cheetahs to win their Super 14 clash 23-19 at the Sydney Football Stadium on Friday. The Cheetahs, who are yet to win a match this season, threatened to pull off an upset when they scored 12 unanswered points in the second half to cut the margin to a point.
Six-time champions the Canterbury Crusaders have boosted their team for an anticipated tough battle with the New South Wales Waratahs in this weekend’s feature Super 14 rugby clash in Christchurch. The Crusaders have the opportunity to open up a potential eight-point gap at the top with a bonus-point victory over the Waratahs on Friday.
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/ 17 February 2008
South Africa’s World Cup winner Bryan Habana picked up where he left off last season to help the Bulls make a successful start to the defence of their Super 14 title. Habana, who was named as the IRB’s world player of the year after a magical season in 2007, continued his fairytale run of form.
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/ 14 February 2008
The new Super 14 season, which begins on Friday, could help determine whether South Africa’s dominance of world rugby was a one-year wonder. South Africa provided both teams in last year’s Super 14 final — the Bulls beat the Sharks — and the Springboks went on to win the sixth World Cup in France.
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/ 9 December 2007
Unsuccessful All Blacks coaching candidate Robbie Deans has been granted a late interview for the vacant Wallabies job, the Australian Rugby Union said on Sunday. Deans, who missed out on the All Blacks position when the New Zealand Rugby Union decided to reappoint incumbent Graham Henry on Friday, had now asked to be considered for the Australian job.
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/ 2 November 2007
Broadcaster Alan Jones has applied for the job of Wallabies coach and said he wants to be an agent of change. Jones, who coached the Wallabies from 1984 to 1988, said he did not expect to take the team through to the next World Cup in 2011 but wanted to introduce a more attacking style of play.
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/ 30 October 2007
South Africa’s World Cup-winning coach Jake White has shown interest in the vacant Wallabies post via his agent, the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) said on Tuesday. ARU high-performance manager Pat Howard confirmed that agent Craig Livingstone contacted him on White’s behalf last week, but he had heard nothing further.
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/ 24 October 2007
Former Australia coach Alan Jones would be prepared to return to his old post if he is asked to take over from the outgoing John Connolly. Queensland Rugby Union chairperson Peter Lewis suggested on Tuesday that Jones would be the ideal person to coach the Wallabies.