The Worlds Favourite Playground
Rugby
Two rounds of relative disappointment were reversed this weekend as three of the four South African teams in action won their Vodacom Super Rugby matches against Australasian opposition.
In the process the Vodacom Bulls moved up to second spot on the overall log, although they made very hard work of recording a try-scoring bonus point in their 35-18 win over the struggling Highlanders in Pretoria on Saturday.
The MTN Golden Lions won the Vodacom Cup for a record fifth time when they beat the Steval Pumas by 42-28 in a highly entertaining final at the Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit on Friday evening. It was the second successive season that the visiting team won the final after DHL Western Province beat GWK Griquas in Kimberley last year.
By winning the Vodacom Cup for the fifth time, the MTN Golden Lions are now the most successful team in the 16 year history of this competition. But it took them some time to do this – their last series success came in 2004.
The Australian Women’s Sevens have finished seventh at the Amsterdam Sevens to claim fifth spot overall in the inaugural IRB Women’s Sevens World Series. The result was a disappointing one for the Australians, who entered day two of the tournament with great expectations following two wins and a loss in the pool stage.
The playoff stage saw the Australians lose their cup quarter-final 19-10 to Russia, then fall 15-5 to Spain, before finally beating France 14-12 in the seventh-place playoff.
The Vodacom Bulls host their New Zealand bogey team, the Highlanders, at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria on Saturday.
Out of all the Kiwi teams in Vodacom Super Rugby, the Pretorians’ worst winning record is against the men from Otago. Over the years, they’ve played each other 15 times and the Vodacom Bulls have only won four of those – or 26.7%.
The number six will be of significance when the Western Force host The Sharks in their final Vodacom Super Rugby tour match of 2013 at the NIB Stadium in Perth on Friday afternoon (SA time). The Sharks will be aiming for their sixth consecutive victory over the Western Australians, while at the same time trying to avoid a sixth successive defeat this season.
It’s also six years ago that the Force won their first – and to date only – match against The Sharks. In 2007, the team from Perth not only beat the KwaZulu-Natalians at home, but also upset the Vodacom Bulls in Pretoria, making them the only team to beat both finalists from that season during the league phase of the competition.
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