The Vodacom Bulls continued their impressive title defence in the Vodacom Super 14 following their 48-38 victory over the Waratahs at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.
The victory by the Pretoria outfit was the only successful South African result after the Vodacom Cheetahs (24-31), Vodacom Stormers (19-17), the Auto & General Lions (33-18) and the Sharks (35-6) all conceded defeats this weekend.
Vodacom Bulls winger Francois Hougaard scored a brace of tries while Stephan Dippenaar, Gerhard van den Heever, Wynand Olivier and Jacques-Louis Potgieter all added five-pointers for the hosts.
The Waratahs though secured a bonus point for losing within seven of the Pretoria side. The defeat ensured that the Sydney franchise ended round three in eleventh position, while the Vodacom Bulls continued their dominance at the top of the log.
In Bloemfontein the Highlanders continued their undefeated run over the hosts in Bloemfontein on Saturday. The Otago side has now also won their last five games against the Vodacom Cheetahs, whose only win against the Highlanders was in Invercargill back in 1997 when the tourists outclassed the hosts to triumph 49-18.
The Auto & General Lions are still in search of their first victory in the 2010 Vodacom Super 14 following their 33-18 defeat to the Hurricanes in Wellington. The hosts secured their third win of the competition and are currently in second position on the log after round three.
England fly half Andy Goode says the chance to play Super 14 rugby is just too good a chance to turn down. His set to make his debut for the Sharks against the Crusaders in Christchurch on Friday.
Goode - who is playing for the Sharks on a loan deal, after being released by his French club Brive - linked up with his new teammates at the start of this week and he is raring to go in what he describes as his “greatest rugby adventure yet”.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, not many England players have had the opportunity to play Super Rugby at my age,” he tells rugby365.com, ahead of his bench appearance for the 2007 Super 14 finalists this Friday.
“It all happened pretty quickly for me… I’d say I got the call from [Sharks coach] John Plumtree and about four/five days later I was getting ready to board a plane to Australia.
Defending champions the Bulls proved too strong at Loftus Versfeld on the weekend in their Super 14 match as they notched up their second half century in two weeks, beating the Brumbies 50-32 in an entertaining match.
Flyhalf Morne Steyn scored two tries and kicked five conversions and five penalties as the home side picked up their second consecutive win in this year’s competition, with Steyn scoring 35 points in total.
‘Old man’ John Smit is set to reach an impressive milestone on Friday night when he becomes the first local player to represent the same franchise in 100 Super Rugby games.
Bulls loose forward Pedrie Wannenburg will join Smit a day later when he becomes a centurion for the Pretoria-based side.
AJ Venter holds the record for playing the most Super Rugby games, but his 125 games were for different teams (94 for the Sharks, 19 for the Cats and 10 for the Stormers).
Ollie le Roux, who is unlikely to phone Smit to offer his congratulations for the milestone that is being achieved against the Cheetahs on Friday night, played 108 games. However, 94 of those were for the Sharks and the rest for the Cats and Cheetahs.
Smit criticised Le Roux in his autobiography that was released at the end of last year.
Albert van den Berg played 95 of his 102 Super rugby games for the Sharks and the rest for the Cats.
This hit by Sale centre, Lee Thomas, rocked Harlequins’ Will Skinner to the point that he needed to take a few minutes to recover from a serious case of having the wind knocked out of him. To his credit, that’s all it was, and he got up shortly afterwards and soldiered on.
Enjoy….
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The Vodacom Bulls continued their impressive title defence in the Vodacom Super 14 following their 48-38 victory over the Waratahs at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.
England fly half Andy Goode says the chance to play 
‘Old man’ John Smit is set to reach an impressive milestone on Friday night when he becomes the first local player to represent the same franchise in 100 Super Rugby games.
