KEY POINTS:
The absence of the 22 All Blacks on a conditioning programme has started to bite the New Zealand Super 14 franchises.
All three New Zealand teams in South Africa, including defending champions Crusaders, lost their third round games at the weekend.
Though all three results were close, there was evidence in all the New Zealand teams' performances of a lack of cutting edge and finishing touch, and the leadership normally associated with quick on-field analysis.
It was the first time in six years that the Crusaders had failed to score a try, even though captain and hooker Cory Flynn would not lean on the absence of their All Blacks.
"We created so many opportunities. We were down near their line a lot of times but we just didn't capitalise, which is very disappointing," he said.
"We haven't got our All Blacks for seven games but we've got the team that can do it. We've just got to believe in ourselves and take our opportunities."
Though clearly frustrated with the refereeing, as well as his own players' errors, Crusaders coach Robbie Dean kept his emotions private, unlike Reds coach Eddie Jones who launched a blistering attack on referee Matt Goddard after another tryless match, won 6-3 by the Brumbies.
Jones is in danger of facing the competition judiciary after labelling Goddard's second-half handling of the scrums as "ludicrous" and "disgraceful".
Dean felt his team were denied a try early in the second half when midfielder Casey Laulala burst clear but was called back for a pass forward.
The Lions beat the Crusaders 9-3 in Johannesburg, three penalty goals to one, the Highlanders lost 23-16 to the Sharks in Durban and the Chiefs went down 21-16 to the Stormers in Cape Town.
Sharks fullback Percy Montgomery scored all of his unbeaten team's points, including two tries, to give them a clear lead (12 points) in the competition, two points ahead of Cheetahs who beat the Waratahs 30-26 at Kimberley.
John Mitchell's Force, who upset the Bulls 30-27 in Pretoria, Blues, Brumbies and Hurricanes, who beat the Blues 23-22 in Wellington, are all next on the table with nine points each.
Like Dean, Chiefs coach Ian Foster rued his team's inability to finish good build-up play for the third week.
"With us missing so much experience and lacking some of those gamebreakers, we just have to take more pride in our accuracy and maintaining that ball," Foster said.
"It's frustrating. We feel like we're doing enough but not putting away the chances."
The Chiefs have a horrendous injury list, with key members Keith Robinson, Sione Lauaki and Jono Gibbes out in the forwards and Soseni Anesi and Richard Kahui in the backs.
Highlanders captain Craig Newby said though his team stayed with the Sharks until the end, the home side could have run away with the game with the high number of linebreaks they made in their counter-attacks.
Replacement back Jason Kawau scored twice in a few minutes late in the game but his first try was ruled out by the television referee, who felt Kawau had touched the corner flag before planting the ball down.
In Wellington the Hurricanes withstood a late surge from the Blues to win an extremely tight match in which the home forwards absorbed plenty and dished out a fair bit as well.
"They deserved to win, we just have to learn, put this game behind us and move on," Blues captain Troy Flavell said.
"We played into their hands with their helter-skelter rugby and we came up against the best team in the competition to play that sort of game."
Hurricanes first five-eighth Jimmy Gopperth booted his third penalty 18 minutes from the end to put the Hurricanes back in front after the Blues had taken the lead with a charge-down try from lock Greg Rawlinson.
The Blues scored three tries, the other two by wingers Doug Howlett and Anthony Tuitavake, and the Hurricanes two, by fullback Cory Jane and flanker Serge Lilo.
All seven losing teams in the third round managed to score a bonus point each for finishing within the seven-point margin while the Cheetahs were the only winning side to take the extra point on offer for scoring a minimum of four tries.
- NZPA
