Rugby-Blues crush Force to go top, Brumbies keep pace in Super Rugby

The home side dominated possession in the first half but it was only when scrumhalf Harrison Goddard dived over the line on the verge of halftime that they managed to breach the steely Waratahs defence and take a 16-6 lead. Loose forward Rob Valetini and winger Corey Toole also crossed in the second half before Cale's late score to send prop James Slipper out a winner in his 178th Super Rugby match, a record for an Australian.

Auckland Blues took advantage of a bye for pacesetters the Wellington Hurricanes with a 50-3 mauling of Western Force on Friday to move top of the Super Rugby Pacific standings on points difference at the end of round seven. The ACT Brumbies downed the New South Wales Waratahs 40-16 on Saturday to join the Blues and Hurricanes on 27 points, while the Waikato Chiefs, losing finalists last season, were four points back in fourth after a 68-12 thrashing of Moana Pasifika. In the round opener at Eden Park, scrumhalf Taufa Funaki scored two of the eight tries and a rampant pack contributed another four as the Blues steamrollered a toothless Force.

"I think our game plan's pretty simple," Blues flanker Akira Ioane said. "The forwards love rolling up their sleeves. We love confrontation, that's what we pride ourselves on and I think we did that well tonight."

Number eight Charlie Cale crossed for a fourth Brumbies try to secure the bonus point in the last minute of a hard-fought clash against the Waratahs in the final match of the round at a rain-soaked Canberra Stadium. The home side dominated possession in the first half but it was only when scrumhalf Harrison Goddard dived over the line on the verge of halftime that they managed to breach the steely Waratahs defence and take a 16-6 lead.

Loose forward Rob Valetini and winger Corey Toole also crossed in the second half before Cale's late score to send prop James Slipper out a winner in his 178th Super Rugby match, a record for an Australian. To compound the misery for the Waratahs, who slumped to a sixth loss in seven games, prop Angus Bell limped off in the first half with what looked like a recurrence of the foot injury that wiped out his 2023 season.

All Blacks winger Emoni Narawa bagged a hat-trick of tries in Hamilton in Saturday's early match as the Chiefs rebounded from last week's loss to the Crusaders to reassert their title credentials at Waikato Stadium. Flyhalf Damian McKenzie returned after a week off under All Blacks player management protocols to orchestrate the Chiefs' high-octane attack and convert nine of the 10 tries they scored in a comprehensive bonus-point victory.

In Friday's late match, the Melbourne Rebels fought back from a 12-point deficit just before halftime to run away with a 41-20 victory over the Fijian Drua. The Drua, who have a perfect record at home but have yet to win on the road, only had themselves to blame for the defeat with both scrumhalf Frank Lomani and replacement prop Jone Koroiduadua shown red cards in the second half.

The win took the debt-laden Rebels, whose future beyond this season looks shaky, into fifth place on 19 points. Drua remained in seventh on 13.

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