Welcome to Round 3 of FOREIGN EXCHANGES, the place to go for a run down on what happened in this week’s non-Aussie Super Rugby matches.
Round 3 at a glance
- The Hurricanes chalked up their first win for the season accounting for the Blues.
- The Highlanders put an end to the Lions impressive start to the season with a comprehensive home victory.
- The Cheetahs snuck past an eager but fatigued Sunwolves in the last ten minutes.
- The Chiefs racked up a big score on the road against the Kings.
- The Sharks put an end to the Stormers winning streak and are now one of only two remaining undefeated teams, along with the Brumbies.
Hurricanes 23 – Blues 19
by ‘ozee316’
The Hurricanes brought a simple game to Eden Park “Attack the Blues for 80 minutes, whether in possession or not” and it worked.
The Blues dominated early possession and territory, and kept the ball in hand for long periods. They were rewarded with the first eight points through the boot of Ihaia West (10) and a spectacular diving try in the corner to Rene Ranger (14).
Suddenly the game sparked to life in the 25th minute when Victor Vito (Hurricanes 8) spun off a superb line out drive to score followed just five minutes later by a piece of Nihi Milner Scudder (14) brilliance to set up TJ Perinara (10).
Blues 12, George Moala, scored a try after a line out drive immediately after oranges to close the gap to 15 – 13, and a spectacular 50m try to Tevita Li (11) was disallowed due to a forward pass.
A close range try to Perinara in the 53rd minute rounded out the scoring at 23 – 19 before the Hurricanes repelled repeated lineout drives in the closing moments, fittingly turning the ball over to win the match in injury time.
ESPN match details here
Highlanders 34 – Lions 15
by Scott Rea
The Highlanders dominated the Lions’ scrum and blew the match open in the first six minutes of the second half for their 6th consecutive win at home.
Inside three minutes, Highlanders winger Matt Faddes dropped the ball with the line wide open.
In the 12th minute, Malakai Fekitoa (Highlanders 13), whose defence was superb, somehow held up Lions winger Ruan Combrinck.
Lima Sopoaga (Highlanders 10) provided a sublime grubber for Faddes to score the first try after 24 minutes.
Jantjies (10) knocked over a penalty for the Lions and, at half-time, the Highlanders led 10 – 3 in what Tony Johnson described as “a bruising first half.”
Shortly after the break it was the Smith show when Ben took a quick lineout to Aaron who then passed back to Ben to result in an 80 metre try.
Faddes then followed this up with an intercept and 75 metre sprint to the line.
In the 56th minute, Fekitoa’s great defence was rewarded with another long range try following a turnover and the ball going through eight sets of Highlanders’ hands.
Sopoaga added a drop goal before Janse van Rensburg and Ackermann scored late tries for the Lions to deny the Highlanders a bonus point.
ESPN match details here
Cheetahs 32 – Sunwolves 31
by ‘mst’
In a game of two halves, the Sunwolves surprised the Cheetahs early when Akihito Yamada (winger) snaked through the defence and crossed for the opening try after only three minutes.
While the Cheetahs were next to score with two penalties by Daniel Marais (10), it wasn’t long before Yamada had scored his second after taking a cross-field kick from Tusi Pisi (10).
Poor Sunwolves defence then led to the Cheetahs first try, scored by Marais. But any Cheetahs ascendancy was short-lived, with Yamada striking again for the Sunwolves to record a hat trick, followed shortly by a try to captain Shota Horie (2).
All four Sunwolves tries were converted by Pisi, taking the half-time score to 28 – 13.
Pisi slotted a penalty goal for the Sunwolves to open the second half. But having made key changes at the break, the Cheetahs started to fire with Uzair Cassiem (7) and Marais crossing for tries that Marias converted.
The Sunwolves then made several changes to address their wavering defence. But fatigue and lack of depth didn’t help.
A questionable yellow card to Ed Quirk (8) at the 70th minute was the death knell for the Sunwolves and a try to flanker Boom Prinsloo with nine minutes remaining took the final score to 32 – 31 in favour of the Cheetahs.
ESPN match details here
Chiefs 58 – Kings 24
by ‘redstragic’
Whilst this looks like a thrashing and in the end it was, the Chiefs started a bit rusty with handling errors and penalties and the Kings were up by three points early.
At the 10 minute mark, Damian Mackenzie (Chiefs 15) started what would be a prodigious haul of 28 points. If you squint he is a dead ringer for a young Noddy and he put on a display Noddy would be proud of with 23 points off the boot and a first half try.
The Kings toiled away, threw everything they had at the Chiefs and stayed in contact in the opening stanza thanks to the boot of Louis Fouche (10) and a well worked forward try to hooker, Edgar Marutlulle.
At drinks the Chiefs led 27 – 17.
The second half saw the visitors throw off the jet lag and start throwing the ball around.
From number 6 to 15, the Chiefs looked powerful and evasive with ball in hand and the tight five fought well at the breakdown creating five second half tries.
While Cruden played an understated but devastating hand, it was Mackenzie’s day, handling, defending and kicking well.
The biggest cheer of the day from the small crowd at Port Elizabeth was for hooker, Edgar Marutlulle’s second try, well deserved and an obvious crowd favourite.
ESPN match details here
Sharks 18 – Stormers 13
by ‘qwerty51’
Going into this match were two of the three unbeaten sides. The physicality was there as you’d expect from a SA derby, but there was little ambition on attack from both sides.
The only try of the 1st half came from the Stormers’ wing Leolin Zas in the 28th minute after a brilliant pick up on the sideline from a chip kick over the defence by Cheslin Kolbe (15). He came from nowhere. Zas has gas.
The Stormers went into the break 10 – 3 up.
The game was marred by a very controversial moment in the 45th minute. As Cobus Reinach (9) reached out to score a try for the Sharks, Siya Kolisi (7) came over and it appeared the ball was put down on his foot.
However, the referee determined Kolisi purposely kicked the ball out, sent him to the bin and awarded a penalty try, much to the amazement of the commentators and myself.
The Stormers weren’t able to recover and found the Sharks defence too tough to crack all game.
The match looked like it was heading for a draw with the scores tied up with five minutes to go, but shortly after, the Sharks scored a try after both Pietersons combined for a counter attack try.
That sealed the game for a massive away win at Newlands and the Sharks are looking like the real deal.
ESPN match details here
Round 4 – crucial matches
Lions v Cheetahs – Saturday 19 March: The Lions will be looking to bounce back after their disappointing Round 3 match, while the Cheetahs can’t afford to drop another one this early in the season.
Jaguares v Chiefs – Saturday 19 March: The Jaquares will need to improve their discipline if they are to threaten the Chiefs who would be high in confidence after creaming the Lions.
