Flyhalf Christian Lealiifano kicked a dropped goal with less than a minute to go to give the Brumbies a 33-31 victory over the Highlanders in an exhilarating start to the 2009 Vodacom Super 14 tournament in Dunedin on Friday. Both sides earned a bonus point for tries in a see-sawing game that at first had the Highlanders well in front, then the Brumbies surging ahead, then the home-side snatching back the lead before Lealiifano became his side’s hero by sending a pressure drop through the uprights with 50 seconds left on the clock.

A three-try burst after half time enabled the Blues to start their Vodacom Super 14 campaign with an encouraging 25-19 win over the Western Force at the Subiaco Oval in Perth on Friday. The Blues trailed by six points at half time, as the Force led 14-8, but put a bumbling first 40 minutes behind them by scoring 17 unanswered points in 14 minutes straight after the break. That effectively snuffed out the Force challenge, as the home team had been tenacious in defending in the face of a strong wind and a quite dominant Blues challenge up to that point.

A pair of dropped goals, one each by André Pretorius and Earl Rose, lowered coach Eugene Eloff’s blood pressure a good few notches as the Lions beat the Cheetahs 34-28 at Coca-Cola Park on Friday night. In keeping with an exhilarating first day’s play in the 2009 competition the Cat-fight in Johannesburg produced a thriller as the Cheetahs fought back from 28-14 down to level the score at 28-all with 13 minutes left to play.

Auto & General Lions (21) 34: Tries by Cobus Grobbelaar (11 min), Ashwin Willemse (27 min), Henno Mentz (33 min), Willemse (47 min). Earl Rose kicked four conversions and a dropped goal Andre Pretorius a dropped goal.

Vodacom Cheetahs (11) 28: Tries by Frans Viljoen (17 min), Heinrich Brussow (61 min), J-L Potgieter (66 min). Jacques-Louis Potgieter kicked two conversions and three penalties.

The Cruaders made a winning start to the Todd Blackadder era as coach when they edged out the gutsy Chiefs 19-13 in Christchurch on Saturday. The champions scored three tries to two, but the third of their tries was scored in the last minute of a tight game, and in reality it could have gone either way as the Chiefs had several opportunities to win it as the match headed into the final minutes.

The Waratahs survived a fierce second-half onslaught by the Hurricanes to score a crucial 26-22 away victory played at the Westpac Stadium in Wellington on Saturday. The Waratahs rocketed into 19-0 lead but then had to hang on with grim determination with their backs to the wall in the second half to make the most satisfying of starts to their 2009 campaign.

The Sharks stormed back from a half-time deficit to show that they are full value for their status as South Africa’s best Vodacom Super 14 hope as they beat the Stormers 20-15 at Newlands on Saturday. The Stormers led 10-0 after a rousing first half in which they displayed great physical commitment in preventing the Sharks from clicking into their best form, but after half time they fell away following the departure from the field of captain Jean de Villiers on a stretcher with a neck injury. The good news on Saturday evening was that De Villiers has just gone to hospital for observation, and the Stormers will certainly be hoping that he recovers quickly for this match underlined just how important the captain is to the team’s hopes of being competitive. The Stormers looked rudderless for the first 25 minutes after De Villiers’s departure, and in that time the Sharks scored 20 unanswered points to effectively win the match. The Stormers did recover some composure towards the end though and a late Peter Grant try saw the Sharks forced to defend their line for the last eight minutes of the game.

Stormers 15 – Tries: Gcobani Bobo (20 min) and Peter Grant (72 min). Penalty: Peter Grant. Conversion: Peter Grant.

Sharks 20 – Tries: John Smit (60 min) and Stefan Terblanche (65 min); Penalties: Rory Kockott 2. Conversions: Rory Kockott 2.

The Bulls made surprisingly heavy weather of beating the Reds 33-20 at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria on Saturday night. For the opening 15 minutes it appeared as though the under-resourced Reds had been led into an ambush but in the end the Queenslanders came away from what could have been a thorough beating with their pride intact. The Bulls at least scored four tries to claim the bonus point and also reversed last year’s disastrous 40-8 defeat, but coach Frans Ludeke will know that much more cohesion and imagination will be required if the Bulls are to be successful in the weeks that lie ahead.

Source: sarugby.co.za

Pic: rugby365.com

Tags: super 14 results, super 14 roundup