Auckland Blues lead the way, Joost gets the Bulls going

JOHANNESBURG -- The Auckland Blues had their seventh five-point night of the Super 12 rugby competition on Saturday to move back into top spot with three rounds to play before the semi-finals.

At Newlands, Doug Howlett scored two tries to help the Blues to a 36-8 win over the Stormers at Newlands. The win by the Blues, leapfrogged them by a single point over the Wellington Hurricanes and into first place.

All of Auckland's wins have come with bonus points for scoring four or more tries in the match.

The Blues, who have three matches to play, have 35 points to Wellington's 34, although the Hurricanes have just two matches remaining.

Canterbury is in third place with 30 points, followed by the ACT Brumbies with 25.

New Zealand side Otago and New South Wales are still in touch for a play-off spot with 22 points, but the Waratahs have just two matches left.

Queensland Reds coach Peter Slack singled out scrumhalf Joost van der Westhuizen as the catalyst that led the Bulls to a convincing 39-19 win over his team at Loftus in Pretoria.

Van der Westhuizen made his return from a five-match injury lay-off, during which the Bulls lost all five games.

"He is a great player," Slack said of Van der Westhuizen. "He has this magic capacity to lift his guys. We knew he'd make it hard for us and the confidence they displayed in throwing the ball around was from having Joost on the field."

At New Plymouth, New Zealand, the Hurricanes scored 31 unanswered points in the second half after trailing 15-6 at halftime to beat Otago 37-15.

"They were a completely different team in the second half," Highlanders stand-in captain Kelvin Middleton said of the Hurricanes second-half revival.

"I think they did to us what we did to them in the first half."

The Highlanders scored two tries, by winger Seru Rabeni and centre Paul Steinmetz, by the end of the first quarter. But the second half was a different story after flyhalf David Holwell kicked his third penalty of the game in the second minute.

At Christchurch, Sam Broomhall scored a try with three minutes remaining to give defending champions Canterbury a 23-18 win over South Africa's Sharks.

Cold and wet conditions made it difficult for both teams. The home side trailed 6-3 at halftime and went further behind in the opening minute of the second half when a quick lineout throw went wrong and Sharks fullback Brent Russell scored from a counter-attack.

At Canberra, the ACT Brumbies ran in five tries on Friday to beat New South Wales 41-15.

The Brumbies, dominating early possession, crossed first when winger Mark Gerrard took advantage of a long cut-out pass from centre Matt Giteau to put the home side ahead 10-3.

The Waikato Chiefs broke a four-match losing streak, beating South Africa's Cats 40-9 at Rotorua Stadium in New Zealand.

Waikato scored five tries to earn a bonus point, leaving the Cats without a point in their second consecutive match in New Zealand. They lost 65-34 to Canterbury last weekend.

Chiefs coach Kevin Greene said the win, his team's second of the season in eight matches, eased pressure on him and his players.

"The plan was to keep it lively, keep the forwards involved and I think we got the mixture right," Greene said.

"We wanted to give more shape to the game after halftime. Defensively it was the best I've seen during my involvement with the Chiefs."

Cats coach Tim Lane said his team was poor on defence.

"We were soft on the tackle and missed a lot of them," he said. "The Chiefs were more committed and showed more intensity." -- Sapa-Ap