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Chiefs and Bulls boost Super Rugby play-off hopes
By Ben Spratt
The Chiefs kept up with the pace in a highly competitive New Zealand Conference as the Bulls also boosted their Super Rugby play-off hopes on Saturday.
It looks increasingly likely that New Zealand will provide four quarter-finalists in this year's tournament and the Chiefs, although second last in the pool, are well placed to be among them.
They went to the Stormers and won 15-9 as Anton Lienert-Brown and a penalty try ended the South African side's unbeaten home run this season.
The hosts failed to cross, despite leading until the 65th minute as Damian Willemse twice kicked penalties.
And the Stormers' defeat allowed the Bulls to put pressure on their South African rivals with a 39-33 success over the Sharks.
Five different scorers touched down for the hosts as they held on despite a late Sharks push through brothers Jean-Luc and Robert du Preez, although the losing side's efforts were not in vain as they too leapfrogged the Stormers with a bonus point.
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There is nothing particularly significant about Ireland in this regard compared to other Tier 1 nations. To look at 'strategy' for illegal play its best to see what teams push boundaries with new laws. SA have milked two tries at ruck block downs. The strategy is to charge the first few before the ball is out at about 4 seconds but pull out and put up hands in reigned apology. The referees usually allow the scum half to clear without awarding a penalty in this scenario. The problem with that being that the scrumhalf is now taking over 5 seconds through no fault of his own. Having achieved a few slow balls > 5s , the SA forward can now pick a scrum to charge dead on 5s. Now if the scrum half waits, he will concede a penalty, as we saw against Scotland. With the new rule in place, any early charge should result in an immediate penalty.
SA also got an offside block against England which was pivotal again after a couple of 'apologetic' offside aborted charges forcing England to clear slowly.
Go to commentsYep, you're not the sharpest tool in the shed are you?
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