With the exception of the Highlanders gritty victory against the Bulls, every winner in Week 13 was higher on the competition log table than their vanquished rivals, meaning that the title hopefuls tightened their grip on potential Super Rugby Final’s Series qualification.
Mathematically 9 teams remain in with a chance.
The Hurricanes remain barely in touch, sacrificing a healthy lead against the methodical Brumbies, but a crucial four-try bonus point – a competition leading sixth for Mark Hammett’s men – kept them in the hunt.
The Wellington based franchise’s first loss in three matches again showed their lethality on attack, scoring 40 tries so far to lead Super Rugby, but credit must go to how the Brumbies kept coming via Michael Hooper (who recovered after being knocked out) and Zack Holmes.
The young flyhalf kicked 22 points, and showed that Jake White and co have clearly established a fine system, for one would have barely noticed they had lost the Australian Conference’s form number ten in Christian Lealiifano two weeks ago.
With the Brumbies breaking a Wellington hoodoo that had existed since 2003, attention then turned to back-to-back New Zealand Conference matches.
The Highlanders were rated a distant second by bookmakers, with their two straight losses giving them stuttering momentum against a Bulls team that was gunning for their sixth win.
Despite the fundamental similarities of pack strength and forward prowess, it was a pragmatic Bulls team playing a South African brand of kick-pressure rugby against a Highlanders outfit that clearly felt their best chance was to run the visitors off their feet.
It looked as if the Bulls were content to allow the Highlanders to play most of the rugby, but a 13-5 second half to the hosts gave them their tenth win over the three-time champions.
The men from Pretoria don’t have a worse head-to-head record in Super Rugby.
The victory kept the Highlanders in distance of the top-six, while the Bulls would have to wait on how the Stormers performed later in the evening.
The Crusaders then delivered a chilling statement, running in a 59-12 demolition of a Blues side that may have been confident after breaking their losing streak against the Lions a week earlier.
However the seven-time champions, who lost to the Rebels, were a side clearly smarting, and less than subtle verbal barrages from coach Todd Blackadder had the desired effect as they inflicted on the Blues their heaviest defeat in history.
With Dan Carter back running the cutter at first five-eighth, and All Blacks captain Richie McCaw playing at eight, the World Cup winning skipper was typically understated when he said “it’s pretty pleasing when everything comes together like that”.
The huge win, the most points the Crusaders had put on a team since their 77-34 win against the Sharks in 2005, sets up a mouth-watering Southern derby with the Highlanders in Week Fourteen.
It could be something of a winner takes all clash!
Later that evening the Reds continued their resurgence with a workmanlike 34-20 win over the Lions, the comeback match for Quade Cooper, while other players like Will Genia and James Horwill continued to move through the gears.
The brave Lions reached the 20 point margin for the sixth time this season, and will hope to sign off their tour with a win as they head to Perth to wrap up their tour.
With the champions registering two straight victories for the first time since Week Three, one of the Australian Conference’s clashes of the season is on the cards next weekend, when the Queenslanders heading to Canberra to take on the Brumbies.
The Cheetahs and Sharks went at it hammer and tong at Bloemfontein, with the battle between hookers Bismarck du Plessis and Andrian Strauss typifying the physical contest.
The visitors lost Pat Lambie just before kick-off, but Frenchman Fred Michalak slotted in with aplomb, while the Free State based side benefited from a calm performance from Riaan Smit – another young number ten coming off what appears to be something of an endless production line in the Southern Hemisphere.
Still the Sharks were able to continue their late season form, winning three straight matches for the first time since the first month of 2011, and able to maintain their place in the top six as a wildcard outfit.
They return home to Durban to host the Stormers, with next weekend featuring a bevy of top notch encounters which will go further to confirming the makeup of our Super Rugby Final’s Series contenders.
The Stormers, who returned to the top of the table with their tenth win of the season, worked hard as always to hold out a Waratahs team that was determined to beat the South Africans at their own game.
A ten-point burst had the visitors in the contest with half an hour to play, but the iron wall that is the Stormers defence held out in the final 30 minutes, with their miserly 12 tries conceded five better than any other franchise.
Their attack, the fourteenth worst in Super Rugby, isn’t setting the competition alight, but one suspects that few outside of Cape Town are concerned at this stage.
However history shows that teams need a functioning attacking blade to win the competition, so how the South African Conference leaders perform away against the Sharks and Bulls in the next fortnight will prove if they can bring another title to Western Province (their Vodacom Cup side claimed success over the weekend).
The round was wrapped up with an entertaining 32-31 win to the Rebels over the Force, the third time that the two sides had played out a one-point match.
In a game of two halves, the Rebels comfortable half-time lead was nearly run down by the Force, until Kurtley Beale kicked the match winning points with just a couple of minutes left on the clock.