Surviving Lions face up to trio of Kiwi teams
THE Chiefs will face the Hurricanes and the Lions will play the Highlanders in the Super Rugby semi-finals.
The Chiefs crushed the Stormers 60-21 at Newlands yesterday with a masterclass of attacking rugby, outscoring their opponents by eight tries to three.
The two-time champions dominated most facets of play and the Stormers were blown away by the pace and intensity with which the Chiefs executed their moves.
The result means that three out of the four teams in the semi-finals are New Zealand teams – after the Highlanders and Hurricanes won their quarter-finals – with the Johannesburgbased Lions filling the final play-off spot as they crushes the Crusaders 42-25 at home.
The Lions, South Africa’s top-ranked side, powered themselves to a 15-0 lead inside the opening 15 minutes.
Courtnall Skosan shocking the visitors with a first-minute 55-metre sprint down the left wing to the try line.
Luke Romano’s fourthminute yellow card didn’t help matters and Rohan Janse van Rensburg grounded before Elton Janjies needed to knock over his first penalty of the game.
Richie Mo’unga got the visitors off the mark with a 20th-minute penalty and Ryan Crotty crossed, but at altitude the Crusaders never quite looked capable of reeling the Lions all the way in. And, sure enough, Malcolm Marx underlined the home side’s dominance with a try to make the score 22-10 at the break.
Crusaders, who are the most successful Kiwi side when playing away in South Africa, managed to reduce the deficit to eight points thanks to Mo’unga’s kicking and a try from Mitchell Drummond. But the Lions didn’t take long to reach for the extra gears.
Ruan Combrinck, so effective for the Springboks against Ireland at the same venue last month, grounded his try with 12 minutes left and Ross Cronje put the result beyond all doubt before Ben Volavola claimed a consolation before the Crusaders’ season ended.
Dave Rennie’s Chiefs will go to Wellington to take on the top-seeded Hurricanes in their semi-final with the Highlanders making the long trek to South Africa to take on the Lions.
The Chiefs took a 17-7 lead after 15 minutes and never looked back, scoring tries through Sam McNicol, Brad Weber, Tom Sanders, James Lowe, Damian McKenzie, Hika Elliot, Tevita Koloamatangi and Tawera Kerr-Barlow.
McKenzie added seven conversions and two penalties. The Stormers replied with a try double from Vincent Kock and a third try from Nizaam Carr.
Australia found themselves without a team in the semi-finals for the first time in four years when the Brumbies went down 15-9 to the Highlanders.
The Brumbies had several chances on Friday night to steal victory in the dying minutes but the defending champions held on to snap a decade-long losing streak at a slippery GIO Stadium.
It marked the end of time at the Brumbies for a number of players – including co-captain Stephen Moore, playmaker Matt Toomua and David Pocock.
Moore is heading back to the Queensland Reds next season, while Toomua is joining Leicester and Pocock is beginning a 12month sabbatical.
Brumbies coach Stephen Larkham said a controversial no-try call would leave a bitter taste. Lausii Taliauli crashed over and appeared to score what could have been the match-winner with just five minutes left and with the Brumbies trailing by six points.
Referee Angus Gardner couldn’t see whether the ball was on the ground, despite half of Taliauli’s body being across the line.
Gardner also refused to reward a dominant Brumbies scrum in the last seconds of the game when they were just five metres out and putting the Highlanders under intense pressure that could have led to a penalty try.
Larkham said: “The guys did everything right to win that game. It’s hard for me not to comment on the refereeing, but I can’t see how Lausii didn’t score that try.
“We had a dominant scrum the whole game and I don’t think that changed at the end. I thought there should have been a penalty there at the end ... we got to a point where we deserved to win that game and it’s incredibly frustrating to know we lost it that way.”
Shocking, senseless, speechless – those were some of the words from former Sharks favourite Stefan Terblanche after their 41-0 quarter-final humiliation by the Hurricanes in a stormy Wellington.
The Hurricanes managed six tries, turning the screws ever more ruthlessly after leading 13-0 at the break.
Terblanche, a 37-cap Springbok whose Sharks career spanned more than a dozen years as a utility back, said:“I’m speechless, bitterly disappointed. It was a shocking performance by the Sharks.”
Hurricanes captain Dane Coles was rushed to hospital with a rib injury.