KEY POINTS:
The sluggish Super 14 morphed into showtime at the weekend. Or so the statistics suggested.
After three rounds of the series, 73 tries had been scored in 21 matches before all hell let loose as 33 tries were scored in six matches from Wellington to Bloemfontein. The trickle of tries was replaced by a torrent of touchdowns, though that did not equate to any great improvement in the quality of the rugby.
The Stormers, Reds and Cheetahs offered marginal resistance in their matches, but there was suspense and torment galore in Wellington, Perth and Pretoria as all three games were decided after the siren.
That brought misery to the Chiefs who stayed winless when Bulls wing Bryan Habana sneaked in at the corner, and dismay for the Brumbies who could not discover any attacking edge and fell to the Hurricanes and a late Thomas Waldrom try.
Perhaps the greatest drama came when the Force hosted the Lions. The winner was assured of history. John Mitchell's mob were after their first home win in their short history, the South Africans were chasing their first win in Super rugby in Australia.
The tension escalated as Cameron Shepherd and Andre Pretorius swapped penalties in the last minutes before an unwise drop goal attempt from Matt Giteau, the Force's multimillion-dollar recruit, slewed wide of the target to leave the Lions as victors. Much of the match was mediocre, but for anxiety it was right up there.
The best bounceback of the round came from the Crusaders. The defending champions were cowed by the Lions last week and another defeat would have sent further warnings about how vulnerable they were without their senior All Blacks.
Those concerns were raised after the Crusaders were held tryless for the first time in 79 games last week but yesterday they scored six tries in their crushing victory to stay on track for the playoffs. Hired help Rua Tipoki was the man of the match with his running and offloads while Stephen Brett scored a decisive 24 points.
The Crusaders created the type of relentless pressure which has underpinned the franchise and will start their final game in the Republic, against the unbeaten Sharks, with renewed belief.
Across the country to the north- east, the Chiefs succumbed to some ill-fortune and a rare piece of adventure from the Bulls.
For large chunks of the match, the Chiefs showed some strong patterns with Lelia Masaga offering enough pizzazz to challenge the Hurricanes' David Smith as the best young New Zealand wing in the competition.
Defeat has not yet ruined the Chiefs' playoff chances because of other topsy-turvy results. But the longer they go without a win, the more demons they will have to challenge and that can be a very ugly scenario.
Just ask the Force and the Lions.
