Bulls miss out on Super 15 playoffs

WELLINGTON – The Bulls’ reign as Super rugby champions was ended by South African compatriots the Sharks after the playoffs race was finally decided in the last match of an 18-week, 120-match regular season.

The Queensland Reds, Canterbury Crusaders and Cape Town-based Stormers finished at the top of the Australian, New Zealand and South African conferences while the Auckland Blues, Sharks and New South Wales Waratahs snatched playoffs spots with last-round wins.Seven teams began the final round vying for the six places in the playoffs and in a brutal game of musical chairs, the defending champion Bulls were left without a seat when the music stopped on Saturday.A six-match winning streak which carried the Bulls to the threshold of the playoffs ended at home where they were beaten 26-23 by the Sharks, leaving them in seventh place.The Reds beat the Waikato Chiefs 19-11 in Hamilton and the Stormers – beaten by the Bulls in last year’s final – beat the Cheetahs 44-34 in Bloemfontein to clinch first and second places on the championship table.In doing so, they earned automatic home semifinals and the right to sit out the first round of the playoffs in which the Blues will play the Waratahs at Auckland on Friday and the Crusaders will play the Sharks in Nelson on Saturday.The Crusaders beat the Wellington Hurricanes 16-9 in a rugged match billed as an All Blacks World Cup trial to finish the season in third place while the Blues snapped a four-match losing streak with a 33-16 win over the Otago Highlanders.The Waratahs scored 31 points in the second half to beat the ACT Brumbies 41-7 and to move from seventh place to fifth, edging the sixth-placed Sharks on points differential. After the longest regular season in Super rugby only nine points separated the top six teams and the playoffs lineups were finally decided on a countback of points scored.Many matches were played against emotional backdrops as the tournament’s last round saw the end of many lengthy Super rugby careers. Bulls captain Victor Matfield is likely to retire after this year’s World Cup, making his team’s defeat and the end of its two-year championship reign more poignant.Matfield’s Springboks locking partner Bakkies Botha, who played his 100th Super rugby match on Saturday, is also ending his association with the Bulls as is Springboks scrumhalf Fourie du Preez.’It’s very tough,’ said Matfield. ‘The Sharks came out firing. I thought we fought for 80 minutes but it just wasn’t enough. For the three of us, it’s a very special day. Maybe the last time.’Winger Lwazi Mvovo scored the game-clinching try for the Sharks in the 74th minute of a match played in front of a sellout crowd of 50 000 at Pretoria’s Loftus Versfeld.The Sharks clung on in a dramatic South African derby, despite a late score by Bulls scrumhalf Francois Hougaard, for their first win in Pretoria since 2008.’Although we love our wives, our girlfriends and our kids, we don’t want to be at home next weekend, we want to be playing,’ captain Stefan Terblanche said. The Crusaders demonstrated all of their famous grit and determination to beat the Hurricanes 16-9 in a match of physical attrition in Wellington.The victory sealed a remarkable season for the Crusaders, who had to overcome the effects of a devastating earthquake to clinch their 13th Super rugby semifinal place since the tournament’s inception in 1996.’We just focused week to week and with all the adversity the boys have been through it really brought this team together,’ coach Todd Blackadder said.The Stormers capped an outstanding season in which they led the South African conference from the first week until the last. Tries from Gio Aplon, Juan de Jongh, Nick Koster and Bryan Habana and 24 points from returning flyhalf Peter Grant sealed the South African conference.’We can consider it job done to finish top of our conference, get a bye and a home semi at Newlands,’ Stormers captain Schalk Burger said. ‘We can get the feet up, rest up and look forward to the semi.’ – Nampa-AP