Chiefs and Bulls draw Hamilton nailbiter

Chiefs 26 Bulls 26

The Bulls walked away from Hamilton with three vital Super 14 rugby competition points after holding off a late Chiefs surge for a 26-26 draw today.

The Bulls surrendered a 26-11 lead early in the second half and breathed a sigh of relief when a Loki Crichton dropped goal attempt in the final seconds flew wide.

It kept the Bulls' playoff hopes intact in fifth place but the Chiefs face a tougher battle, four points further back.

The Bulls scored four tries to three in an even contest in all facets at a slippery Waikato Stadium, and should have put the hosts away.

"Our aim was four points so we were one short. We threw it away in the end, I think we had the game in the bag and it was just a pity we couldn't finish off," Bulls captain Victor Matfield said.

Meanwhile the Chiefs were rueing a missed conversion from Stephen Donald from in front in the 46th minute as they came up empty from a final raid when Crichton pushed his 30m matchwinning attempt to the right.

"Very disappointing, we certainly had the opportunities to put the game away in the first half. We made a lot of line breaks and didn't convert them into five pointers," Chiefs captain Marty Holah said.

The Chiefs hit the ground running with Sione Lauaki and Holah prominent in early attacks, but the Bulls struck first against the run of play in the fourth minute.

Springboks wing Bryan Habana, one of the best pilferers in world rugby, intercepted a long Steven Bates pass and raced 80m to score under the posts.

Chiefs fullback Mils Muliaina, playing with a fractured hand, replied five minutes later with a well-constructed try when pivot Donald found him with a pinpoint cut-out pass.

The usually dour Bulls gave as good as they got, flinging the ball around, and they were rewarded with two more tries before halftime.

Nippy halfback Fourie Du Preez took a quick tap 15m out and before the Chiefs could blink he dived over in the left corner.

A Steyn penalty attempt hit the posts 10 minutes before the break but he made amends on the stroke of halftime when he bulldozed through Byron Kelleher and Sitiveni Sivivatu to score from a ruck on the Chiefs' goal line.

His sideline conversion gave the Bulls a 19-11 halftime lead.

The Bulls looked home four minutes into the second half as they secured the bonus point when No 8 Pedrie Wannenberg bulldozed over from a nice in-pass from Du Preez at a scrum.

With heavy rain falling the Chiefs got the quick reply they needed with Sam Tuitupou charging down a Steyn clearance and toeing over the line to score. Donald stunned the crowd by slamming the conversion attempt against the posts.

After a Donald penalty got the Chiefs within seven points, they suffered a blow when Lauaki departed with an arm injury -- but his replacement Liam Messam set up the try that levelled the scores.

Sivivatu broke down the left and from the next ruck Messam broke through before an in-pass put Bates over under the posts with 11 minutes left.

Scores:

Chiefs 26 (Mils Muliaina, Sam Tuitupou, Steven Bates tries; Stephen Donald 3 pen, con)
Bulls 26 (Bryan Habana, Fourie Du Preez, Morne Steyn, Pedrie Wannenberg tries; Steyn 3 con).
HT: 11-19. 

- NZPA