15 February
Super 14 Roundup – Round 1
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.
