A weekend when rugby didn’t seem to matter
Super Rugby was overshadowed by the horrific Christchurch terrorist attack which rocked New Zealand on Friday.
There probably won’t be too many complaints little ground was made in the New Zealand conference after the much anticipated South Island derby between the Crusaders and Highlanders in Dunedin was cancelled.
As was the case when a canned fixture between the Crusaders and Hurricanes in the aftermath of the 2011 Christchurch earthquake occured, the red and blacks and Highlanders were each awarded two points.
The shared points followed the 23-23 draw between the Chiefs and Hurricanes in Hamilton on Friday night, meaning four of the five Kiwi franchises have two points to show for the weekend.
With the Blues on a bye, only the last-placed Chiefs made up any ground in the NZ conference, although they still trail the fourth-placed Blues (six points) by three.
The unbeaten Crusaders (19 points) remain on top of the standings.
While some fans wanted the fixture – the Highlanders’ biggest money earner – to go ahead in a stand against the alleged terrorist’s murderous actions, the general consensus was the right call was made by the franchises to flag the game.
As Crusaders assistant coach Ronan O’Gara wrote in a column published in the Irish Examiner before the decision was made: ‘‘I’m really not even sure, or comfortable, with the idea that our game against the Highlanders should go ahead tonight in Dunedin.’’
O’Gara was about to fly to Dunedin with the Crusaders on Friday when he received a text message from the principal of Fendalton Open School, which four of his children attend. The text ‘‘rooted me where I stood’’ after learning the school was in lockdown, he explained.
While the Chiefs and Hurricanes match went ahead, there was a poignant moment before kickoff, when the two teams combined to form a huddle in the middle of the field during a pre-game minute’s silence to honour the victims of the attack.
The Hurricanes, who still have not won in Hamilton since 2007, had a golden opportunity to end the run when Chiefs pivot Marty McKenzie dropped the ball in-goal inside the last five minutes. However, Liam Mitchell knocked on under the sticks.
While it was a significantly improved performance by the Chiefs, they’re still winless and dead last through five rounds.
The match of the round was in Johannesburg where the Lions stormed back from 33-5 down to beat the previously unbeaten Rebels 36-33.
Lions reserve Gianni Lombard kicked the winning penalty after the final hooter, the 20th infringement the Rebels were pinged for on the day. In comparison, the Lions were penalised once.
Still without a win in South Africa since joining the competition in 2011, the Rebels copped two yellow cards after taking a 21-5 halftime lead.
The Brad Thorn-coached Reds also pulled off a fine second-half comeback to snare their first win of the season, 33-30 over the Sunwolves in Tokyo.
Tate McDermott pounced on a Harry Hockings charge down in the 75th minute to lock the game up, Chiefs 23 (A Lienert-Brown, D McKenzie tries; McKenzie 2 con, 3 pen)
Hurricanes 23 (M Proctor, W Goosen tries; B Barrett 2 con, 2 pen, J Barrett pen). HT: 20-13.
Brumbies 19 (Penalty try, F Faingaa 2 tries;
C Leali’ifano con)
Waratahs 13 (M Hooper, A Newsome tries; B Foley pen). HT: 12-5
Stormers 35 (D du Plessis, S Kolisi, H Jantjies, J Phillips tries; SP Marais 2 con, pen, J du Plessis con) Jaguares 8 (B Delguy try; J Diaz Bonilla pen). HT: 16-8
Reds 33 (L Wright, B Paenga-Amosa 2, H Hoopert, T McDermott tries; H Stewart 3 con, pen) Sunwolves 30 (J Booth, R Warren-Vosayaco, D Pryor, K Uchida tries; H Parker 4 con, pen). HT: 5-21 Lions 36 (M Marx, M Schoeman, A Coetzee, L Mapoe, C Skosan tries; E Jantjies 4 con, G Lombard pen) Rebels 33 (Q Cooper, T English, R Hodge, B Meakes, I Naisarani tries; Cooper 4 con). HT: 5-26. only for Hamish Stewart to miss the conversion.
However, Stewart made no mistake after the Reds were awarded a penalty inside the last two minute.
The Brumbies beat the Waratahs 19-13 in an underwhelming Australian derby on Friday night in Canberra, while the Stormers trounced the Jaguares 35-8 in Cape Town to improve to 3-1 ahead of their Australasian tour.
Bangladesh cricketer Tamim Iqbal has given a chilling account of his team’s brush with death in Friday’s terrorist attack in Christchurch.
Scheduled to play the Black Caps in the final match of the three-test series at Hagley Oval from Saturday, the Bangladesh teaminstead fleed New Zealand after the fixture was cancelled.
The team arrived back in the Bangladesh capital of Dhaka yesterday, and Tamim has described his first-hand account of the events in an interview with ESPNcricinfo’s Mohammad Isam, who himself was around the scene of the attack.
Tamim, the 29-year-old lefthanded batsman, said it was so lucky that the team’s bus ride to the central city mosque was held up for a few minutes.
‘‘Normally Mushfiq [Rahim] and Riyad bhai [Mahmudullah] want to be present during the Khudbah [sermon], which is why we want to reach the Jumma prayers early,’’ Tamim said. ‘‘The bus was scheduled to leave at 1.30pm, but Riyad bhai had gone to the press conference. A bit of time was spent there, and after finishing the press conference, he came to the dressing room.
‘‘In the dressing room, we got engaged in a game of football. Taijul [Islam] didn’t want to lose, but the others wanted him to lose in that game. Taijul and Mushfiq were having a one-on-one game, which took up a few more minutes. These little things saved us in the end.’’
Tamim said that, as always, he was sitting on the sixth seat on the left of the bus, but as they approached their destination, everyone on the right of the vehicle started to see something outside the window.
‘‘I saw that a body was lying on the floor. Naturally we thought either he was drunk or had fainted. So then the bus kept going, and stopped near the mosque. But everyone’s attention remained with that man lying on the ground.
‘‘While that was happening, my attention went to another man, bloodied, and about to fall down. Panic set in, at that point.
‘‘Our bus stopped in front of a car near the mosque. We saw that the bus driver was talking to a lady who was literally shaking and crying. She was saying, ‘there’s some shooting going on, don’t go, don’t go’.
‘‘Everyone heard and saw her, and we started to panic a little more. At that point we were about 20 yards from the mosque. Literally get out of the bus and walk to the mosque. That close.
‘‘When we saw more dead bodies, we couldn’t figure out what to do. Those wearing the namaz cap, they took it off in fear. We figured out that something was going on. Those wearing punjabi [shalwar kameez] they started to wear a jacket over it. What else to do?’’