South Africa's Northern Bulls have romped to the outright lead of rugby's Super 14 series after two rounds with a seven-try home rout of the Auckland Blues.
The 2007 champions blasted the three-time winners of the southern hemisphere provincial championship 59-26 to seize maximum points for the second week running and lead Australian contenders ACT Brumbies and NSW Waratahs by a point.
The Brumbies needed a fulltime conversion by Wallaby skipper Stirling Mortlock to clinch an 18-16 win over depleted defending champions Canterbury Crusaders in Canberra on Saturday.
But there was precious little excitement as the Waratahs prevailed in an ugly 11-7 win over New Zealand's Waikato Chiefs in Sydney on Friday.
Three-time runners-up Coastal Sharks won their South African derby 25-10 over the Golden Lions in Durban on Saturday to hold down fourth place on the standings.
The battered Blues are fifth, on six points, after coming away from their Pretoria flogging with a scoring bonus point.
Weekend winners Wellington Hurricanes, Western Force and Western Stormers joined the Crusaders and Lions in joint sixth place on five points.
The Hurricanes scored two tries in the final five minutes to come from behind to beat the Otago Highlanders 22-17 in Dunedin, while the Perth-based Force downed South Africa's Central Cheetahs 16-10 and the Stormers held out against the fast-finishing Queensland Reds 27-24 in Cape Town.
The Highlanders, Chiefs, Cheetahs and Reds have yet to win a match this season.
Injury-weakened Auckland were in trouble right from the kick-off at Loftus Versfeld, conceding their first try within four minutes as the Bulls secured their four-try bonus point with a 32-14 halftime advantage.
The Pretoria Bulls did not let up in the second half, ensuring the points tally kept rising and the Blues never got closer than 19 points.
There was high drama in Canberra as Mortlock kicked the Brumbies to victory on the siren to deny the under-strength seven-time Super 14 champions Crusaders.
The Crusaders were missing injured skipper Richie McCaw along with several other key All Blacks and looked as if they would courageously hang on for victory before Wallaby back Mark Gerrard crossed over wide out, giving Mortlock the chance to kick the Brumbies to victory.
The Brumbies are proving themselves the masters of brinkmanship this season, having beaten the Highlanders 33-31 with a late drop goal the previous weekend in Dunedin.
It was a poor advertisement for Super 14 rugby in Sydney with the Waratahs winning a woeful spectacle against the Chiefs.
Both sides scored a try but the Waratahs scraped home on the back of flyhalf Kurtley Beale's second-half penalty goal and drop goal.
The Sharks, among the title favourites this season, ran in three tries to one to ease past the Lions for the Durban-based side's second straight win.
Queensland Reds almost came back against the Stormers, surging from 27-5 down early in the second half to secure two bonus points, one for scoring four tries and the other for losing by fewer than eight points.
Copyright 2009 AFP Global Edition
