Chiefs maul toothless Sharks

Sharks Brent Russell evades the tackle of Chiefs Marty Holah. Picture / Fotopress

The Chiefs left the Sharks floundering in Hamilton tonight hammering the South Africans 40-5 in their Super 12 rugby match.

The Chiefs scored six tries, four in the first half at Waikato Stadium posting just their second win of the season to lift themselves off the bottom of the table.

While the Sharks shored up their defence after the break, they rarely threatened and were rewarded with just a solitary late try to Jaco Gouws.

The Chiefs were dealt an early blow when lock Keith Robinson delayed his return from long-term injury withdrawing from the starting line-up earlier today, but the disruption seemed to have minimal effect on the Chiefs.

They secured a bonus point 10 minutes from halftime after racing to a 28 point lead in a scrappy first 40 minutes effectively sealing the win.

Flying winger Sitiveni Sivivatu bagged a double inside 30 minutes as the Sharks were punished after making successive mistakes.

Chiefs blindside flanker Sione Lauaki , who was one of the stars of last year's Super 12, arguably produced his best performance of the season as he constantly menaced the Sharks on both attack and defence.

He saved a certain try after holding up second five-eighth Rudi Keil over the tryline early in the first half, while ranging outwide he terrorised the Sharks with his punching runs and frequent off-loading.

His stamped his mark on the match with a try in the 24th minute, bumping off an ineffective AJ Venter tackle to crash over the line, while the Chiefs back three of Sivivatu, fellow winger Sailosi Tagicakibau and fullback Soseni Anesi ripped the Sharks defence apart.

Although the Chiefs displayed poor handling and weak tackling at times, the Sharks were guilty of making errors throughout the match as they plunged to their fifth loss from six matches.

Too often they lacked direction in the mid-field and poor option taking and dropped ball led directly to two Chiefs first half tries as they quickly exposed the hapless visitors.

Sivivatu started the first half onslaught when scored in the third minute.

Lauaki crossed about 20 minutes later and another successful David Hill conversion put the Chiefs into a handy 14-0 lead.

Sivivatu struck again shortly afterwards when debutant centre Niva Ta'auso pounced on a Keil fumble before feeding his winger, then hooker Aleki Latui barrelled over the tryline from close range to complete the opening half rampage.

Anesi inflated the Chiefs tally with his five-pointer in the 60th minute -- the only try not converted by second five-eighth David Hill.

First five-eighth Stephen Donald capped the onslaught on fulltime with a well deserved try.

The Chiefs face the Cats in Hamilton next Friday, with the Sharks travelling to Auckland to play the Blues on Saturday.

Chiefs 40
(Sitiveni Sivivatu 2, Sione Lauaki, Aleki Latui, Sosene Anesi, Stephen Donald tries; David Hill 4 con, Keith Lowen con)

Sharks 5
(Jaco Gouws try).

Halftime
28-0.

- NZPA