Waratahs Win Over the Blues
The Waratahs hadn't won at Auckland's Eden Park since the 1920s but buried their demons in style to revive their title hopes after back-to-back losses to the Brumbies and Crusaders had threatened to derail their 2009 campaign.
Chris Hickey's decision to hand Daniel Halangahu his first start of the season, at the expense of star five-eighth Kurtley Beale, proved a coaching masterstroke.
In addition to adding a steadying hand - and boot - to the NSW backline, Halangahu contributed 17 points for the Tahs from a try, three conversions and two penalties.
With both sides scoring three tries, Halangahu's five goals from six attempts ultimately proved the difference.
"It was my first start of the year - I'd only played about 40 minutes - so I was happy to get through the 80," Halangahu modestly said.
"Very happy with the team. We came here knowing we were really up against it.
"We had never had a win here at Eden Park and I was here last time (when) we got a huge touch up.
"So the boys knew it was a huge challenge but, yeah, very happy to come away with the points."
NSW captain Phil Waugh, another of the Waratahs' heroes, was also mightily relieved at finally breaking the jinx.
"It's a tough place to win. I've been on the wrong end too many times," Waugh said.
"Great effort by the guys and it was an important win for us."
The Waratahs made a dream start, racing to a 10-0 lead in as many minutes - with all the early points coming from Halangahu.
After some relentless attack inside Blues territory, Halangahu dummied his way over for the opening try from close range in the seventh minute.
He landed the conversion, then added a penalty goal before the Blues struck back in the 17th minute with a 60-metre try to winger Anthony Tuitavake.
From a scrum win, the Blues quickly shifted the ball right to Tuitavake, who fended off Waratahs centre Rob Horne and shimmied past fullback Sam Norton-Knight before racing away to score.
Halfback Luke Burgess extended NSW's lead to 17-5 in the 27th minute with an intercept try from after a Blues scrum win close to their own line.
The Waratahs were reduced to 14 men on the half hour when Wycliff Palu was sin-binned for a deliberate knock-down, allowing the Blues to narrow the deficit to nine points through a Jimmy Gopperth penalty.
The visitors suffered another setback early in the second half, with Burgess forced off with a leg injury.
Flanker Onosa'i Auva'a edged the Blues to within two points of the Waratahs when he capitalised on a botched NSW lineout to score the home team's second try in the 50th minute.
The Waratahs, though, rebounded quickly with hooker Tatafu Polota-Nau - with the support of his driving forward pack - charging over to restore NSW's nine-point lead.
Halangahu made it 27-15 with another penalty before a converted try to Blues replacement Michael Hobbs set up a tense final 10 minutes for the Waratahs.
But the Blues were unable to conjure the winning try and, despite picking up a bonus point for losing by less than seven points to move into the top four, the Aucklanders were likely to slip to mid-table by the end of the round.
Compounding their woes was an Achilles tendon injury to All Blacks lock Ali Williams.
Chiefs Run Rampant Over Reds
The Chiefs proved they are real Super 14 title contenders, running in six tries to four against the Reds to post their fourth consecutive win for the season in front of a crowd of 21,041.
The Waikato-based side followed on from last week's impressive 63-34 hiding of neighbours the Blues.
The Reds started off on the front foot and had the bulk of the possession until the seventh minute, before Chiefs flanker Tanerau Latimer stole possession and spun the ball wide to Stephen Donald, who ran 50 metres to score in the corner.
It was mostly downhill from there for the Reds.
Controversy struck in the 11th minute when Lauaki made a linebreak and put Sivivatu over for a try.
However a referee's assistant, 15 metres away, ruled the ball was knocked on, when Sivivatu hurt his wrist from slamming the ball down.
However a case of rugby Karma was enforced two minutes later when Sivivatu flew through a midfield gap and scored under the posts.
With the Chiefs comfortably up 19-0, Dwayne Seeney replaced the injured Sivivatu in the 16th minute, but was only on the field for one minute before he was yellow carded for tackling reds winger Blair Connor in the air.
The Reds immediately capitalised on being one player up, scoring twice in the ten minutes through hooker Sean Hardman and centre Berrick Barnes.
In the 36th minute, Stephen Donald caught Connor out of position for the second time in two minutes, when he changed direction and executed a pin-point crosskick to Muliaina, who added five points to the Chiefs tally.
Sweeney also redeemed his yellow card on the stroke of halftime, when he stepped inside McMeniman and sprinted 40 metres to make the score 37-12.
Looking down and out, the Reds needed to score first in the second half and did, when fullback Mark McLinden ran a hard inside ball off Barnes and scored under the posts.
But the fightback was shortlived, with the Chiefs playing a much more defensive game in the second half before Muliaina twisted the knife into the Reds with a 40-metre run to the try line, subsequently racking up the half century.
However the Reds did manage to salvage a bonus point out of the match in the 75th minute, when a Chiefs' defensive lineout went over the head of the number six jumper and Daniel Braid ducked under.
Reds captain James Horwill said his side failed to stick to the game plan.
"We were doing what we said we'd do at the start of the match, then we went away from it and it hurt us," Horwill said.
"We gave them too much turnover ball and they feed off that."
Queensland coach Phil Mooney credited Berrick Barnes as a rock in a losing side.
However he said the defensive system which had helped the Reds post their last two wins at Suncorp this season fell apart in the first half.
"To be honest the Chiefs were red hot tonight," he said.
Chiefs captain Mils Muliaina praised his side's effort.
"We were pretty good, we were pretty hungry at the breakdown and we knew we had to start well against these guys," Muliaina said.
"I'm pretty proud of the effort ... we've got a bit of momentum now and we've won a few games on the trot and we're glad to be going home."
Super 14 Collated Results and Standings-Round 7
NSW WARATAHS 27 (Luke Burgess, Daniel Halangahu, Tatafu Polota-Nau tries Halangahu 3 cons 2 pens) bt BLUES 22 (Onosa'i Auva'a, Michael Hobbs, Anthony Tuitavake tries Jimmy Gopperth 2 cons pen) at Eden Park. Referee: Craig Joubert (RSA).
HIGHLANDERS 36 (Matthew Berquist, Daniel Bowden, Jimmy Cowan, Israel Dagg, Jason Shoemark tries Berquist 4 cons pen) bt BULLS 12 (Morne Steyn, Gerhard van den Heever tries Steyn con) at FMG Stadium. Referee: Vinny Munro (NZL).
CRUSADERS 11 (Adam Whitelock try Stephen Brett 2 pens) bt STORMERS 7 (Luke Watson try Willem de Waal con) at AMI Stadium. Referee: Keith Brown (NZL).
CHIEFS 50 (Mils Muliaina 2, Sitiveni Sivivatu 2, Stephen Donald, Dwayne Sweeney tries Donald 3, Michael Delany cons Donald 4 pens) bt QUEENSLAND REDS 26 (Berrick Barnes, Daniel Braid, Sean Hardman, Mark McLinden tries Brendan McKibbin 2, Barnes cons) at Suncorp Stadium. Referee: Ian Smith (AUS).
SHARKS 35 (Jacques Botes, Ryan Kankowski, Rory Kockott, JP Pietersen, Stefan Terblanche tries Kockott 5 cons) bt BRUMBIES 14 (Christian Lealiifano, Salesi Ma'afu tries Mark Gerrard 2 cons) at ABSA Stadium. Referee: Bryce Lawrence (NZL).
HURRICANES 38 (Conrad Smith 2, Alby Mathewson, Ma'a Nonu, William Ripia tries Piri Weepu 5 cons pen) bt LIONS 32 (Jaque Fourie 2, Todd Clever, Shandre Frolick tries Andre Pretorius 3 cons 2 pens) at Ellis Park. Referee: Jonathan Kaplan (RSA).
Bye-Cheetahs, Western Force
Super 14 Ladder P W D L PF PA PD BP Pts
- Sharks 7 6 0 1 172 120 52 2 26
- NSW Waratahs 7 5 0 2 137 116 21 3 23
- Chiefs 7 4 0 3 193 135 58 6 22
- Bulls 6 5 0 1 153 115 38 2 22
- Hurricanes 6 4 0 2 155 130 25 4 20
- Highlanders 7 3 0 4 148 123 25 6 18
- Crusaders 7 3 1 3 110 110 0 4 18
- Blues 7 3 0 4 198 223 -25 6 18
- Stormers 6 2 0 4 123 101 22 5 13
- Brumbies 6 3 0 3 119 143 -24 1 13
- Queensland Reds 6 2 0 4 128 141 -13 4 12
- Western Force 6 2 1 3 106 127 -21 2 12
- Lions 6 2 0 4 128 180 -52 4 12
- Cheetahs 6 0 0 6 73 179 -106 2 2
Top point scorers (tries, conversions, field goals, penalty goals, points):
Morne Steyn (Bulls) 1 9 2 15 74
Rory Kockott (Sharks) 2 17 1 8 71
Stephen Donald (Chiefs) 1 19 - 7 64
Jimmy Gopperth (Blues) 1 15 - 8 59
Mark Gerrard (Brumbies) 2 6 - 10 52
Daniel Bowden (H'landers) 3 7 - 7 50
Matt Giteau (Force) - 8 1 8 43
Piri Weepu (Hurricanes) - 13 - 5 41
Kurtley Beale (NSW Waratahs) - 8 1 7 40
Andre Pretorius (Lions) - 6 2 7 39
LEADING TRYSCORERS
6: JP Pietersen (Sharks), Sitiveni Sivivatu (Chiefs)
4: Casey Laulala (Crusaders), Isaia Toeava (Blues), Anthony Tuitavake (Blues), Lelia Masaga (Chiefs), Pierre Spies (Bulls)
3: Wynand Olivier (Bulls), Andries Bekker (Stormers), Stirling Mortlock (Brumbies), Hosea Gear (Hurricanes), Daniel Bowden (H'landers), Jaque Fourie (Lions), Brendon Leonard (Chiefs), Jason Shoemark (H'landers), Israel Dagg (H'landers), Ashwin Willemse (Lions), Joe Rokocoko (Blues), Conrad Smith (Hurricanes), Cameron Shepherd (Force), Ryan Kankowski (Sharks), Peter Hynes (Reds), Digby Ioane (Reds), Richard Kahui (Chiefs)
