Super 14 Roundup, Mar. 21-22

Updated: March 23, 2008, 7:23 AM EST Comment

The sixth round began Friday with the pacesetting Crusaders' 34-7 win over the New South Wales Waratahs. New South Wales held Canterbury tryless in the first half, to a 6-0 lead at halftime, but Canterbury scored four tries in the second spell to collect their fifth four-try bonus point in six games.

	Super 14
Round 13 Fri. May. 9 Hurricanes 21-10 Force Recap Bulls vs. Brumbies Sat., May. 10 Highlanders vs. Blues Reds vs. Crusaders Sharks vs. Cheetahs Lions vs. Chiefs Stormers vs. Waratahs
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Center Casey Laulala marked his 100th game in Canterbury's red and black strip at either National Championship or Super 14 level with the first of his team's tries, a 40-meter dash through ragged New South Wales defense.

"Once I got the ball, when I looked up, I had no one in front of me so I just ran," the former All Blacks center said. "I didn't know about it being my 100th game ... I only found out about that later."

Canterbury's second-half revival emphasized its ability to react to the changing circumstances of every match. New South Wales' defense had been sound against sporadic Canterbury raids in the first half but broke down against more concerted attacks in the second.

The Crusaders next face the Wellington Hurricanes, coming off a round-six bye, in a match which has frequently been a stumbling block for them in the past.

"You get the feeling they're just lying in wait for us," Canterbury coach Robbie Deans said. "It's always a tough match against them and they will be even more difficult having had a rest."

South Africa's Sharks, unbeaten after five rounds, sat out the sixth with a bye but held onto second place on the tournament ladder ahead of the Auckland Blues and Western Force, which both had narrow wins.

Auckland needed a last-minute penalty from makeshift goalkicker Ben Atiga to beat the Stormers 17-14 after leading 14-6 at halftime. Atiga, a former All Blacks center, stepped into the goalkicking role in the absence of flyhalf Nick Evans who was sidelined with a shoulder injury.

He missed the early conversion of a try by scrumhalf Danny Lee then kicked three straight penalties to furnish Auckland with an eight-point lead at halftime. The Stormers drew level with a try to fullback Conrad Jantjes, a penalty to Peter Grant and the teams were locked 14-14 until the last minute when Atiga slotted the winning goal.

"I'm still not really happy with our performance," Auckland captain Troy Flavell said. "We still turned over a lot of pill and made a lot of mistakes. If we want to stand a chance in the semifinals, we've got to pick up our act a bit."

The Western Force scored 16 unanswered points in the second half to beat the Otago Highlanders 36-28, inflicting Otago's fifth loss of the season by eight points or less. They took consolation bonus points from their first four matches of the season which resulted in losses by six, four, two and one point.

Wallabies flyhalf Matt Giteau kicked six goals from six attempts to provide 16 points for the Force.

"We're building momentum and we've got a lot of home games now which is great," Giteau said. "We made it pretty tough for ourselves at times today. We didn't play all that well but we got the win and that's what matters."

The ACT Brumbies celebrated George Smith's 100th Super rugby match with a 29-23 win over the winless Cheetahs on Friday. Fullback Mark Gerrard kicked three conversions and a penalty to lead the Brumbies to the bonus-point win, evening their record at 3-3.

The Queensland Reds scored and converted a last-minute try to earn a 24-24 draw with the Lions at Johannesburg. Fullback Chris Latham scored the last of Queensland's three tries as they came back from an 11-point deficit to tie the match on fulltime.

Weekend summaries:

Canterbury 34 (Casey Laulala, Mose Tuiali'i, Wyatt Crockett, Scott Hamilton tries; Daniel Carter 2 conversions, 4 penalties), New South Wales 7 (Wycliff Palu try; Kurtley Beale conversion). HT, 6-0.

ACT 29 (Mark Chisholm, Peter Playford, Tyrone Smith, Mitchell Chapman tries; Mark Gerrard 3 conversions, penalty), Cheetahs 23 (Jongi Nokwe, Tewis de Bruyn tries; Conrad Barnard conversion, 2 penalties; Jacques-Louis Potgieter conversion, penalty). HT: 12-13.

Western Force 36 (Tom Hockings, Richard Brown, Ryan Cross tries; Matt Giteau 3 conversions, 3 penalties; Cameron Shepherd 2 penalties), Otago 28 (Aaron Bancroft, Paul Williams, Fetu'u Vainikolo tries; Daniel Bowden 2 conversions, 3 penalties). HT, 17-13.

Auckland 17 (Danny Lee try; Ben Atiga 4 penalties), Stormers 14 (Conrad Jantjes try; Peter Grant 3 penalties). HT, 14-6.

Waikato 43 (Brendon Leonard 2, Callum Bruce, Dwayne Sweeney, Lelia Masaga, Liam Messam tries; Stephen Donald 5 conversions, penalty), Bulls 27 (Wynand Olivier, Deon Stegmann, Akona Ndungane tries; Derick Hougaard 3 conversions, penalty, dropped goal). HT, 12-10.

Lions 24 (Joe van Niekerk, Rayno Benjamin tries; Jano Vermaak conversion, 2 penalties; Jaco van Schalkwyk dropped goal), Queensland 24 (Peter Hynes, Rodney Blake, Chris Latham tries; Clinton Schifcofske 3 conversions, penalty). HT, 3-0 Lions.