Sharks hold Super 14 lead

SYDNEY – Front-runners Coastal Sharks were given a sharp reality check when they slumped to a shock loss to bottom team Central Cheetahs, but they still lead rugby’s Super 14 competition.

The Bloemfontein Cheetahs bounced back from seven consecutive defeats to outclass the Natal Sharks 31-6 in the upset result of this weekend’s ninth round of the southern hemisphere provincial championship.
Despite their second defeat of the season, the Sharks, who have 30 points, lead New Zealand’s Waikato Chiefs and South Africa’s Northern Bulls by three with five rounds left to next month’s top-four playoffs.
The Chiefs, along with defending champions Canterbury Crusaders, had Easter weekend off, but the Pretoria Bulls were the biggest movers among the top four after a comprehensive 20-6 win over the NSW Waratahs in Sydney on Saturday.
The 2007 champions scored the only tries of the match to nudge the Waratahs out of third spot on points differential and end the Sydney team’s unbeaten 11-match home run.
New Zealand’s Wellington Hurricanes, on 24 points, and Auckland Blues (23), maintained their pursuit of a top-four spot with weekend wins.
The Hurricanes stole a 28-27 victory with the last play of the match over the Western Force in Perth, while the Blues thumped South Africa’s Golden Lions 36-12 in Auckland on Good Friday.
New Zealand’s Otago Highlanders have a three-way share of seventh place on 22 points with the Crusaders and ACT Brumbies.
The Highlanders extended their winning run to three games with a 24-19 over the second-last Queensland Reds in Invercargill.
Australia’s Brumbies capped an emotionally draining week with a hard-earned 17-10 victory over South Africa’s Western Stormers in Canberra.
Given no chance even at home after their run of defeats, the Cheetahs came from behind to lead 10-3 at half-time before dominating the second half against the sluggish Sharks.
But not even a bonus-point victory for scoring four tries lifted the Cheetahs off the bottom as they are six points adrift of the Reds.
‘The Cheetahs owed it to the supporters who came here over Easter weekend to back us despite so many losses. It is a better team than our record suggests and now that we have set a standard, it must be maintained,’ Cheetahs captain and 2007 World Cup winner Juan Smith said.
– Nampa-AFP