Sharks in the swim to extend Super 15 lead

Sydney: South Africa`s Coastal Sharks stretched their Super 15 lead to six points with a comprehensive victory over the New South Wales Waratahs at the weekend, with just a single point separating the next six teams.

The Durban-based Sharks bounced back from their first loss of the season at the hands of the Northern Bulls the previous week to down the Waratahs 32-10, scoring two tries to one with fly-half Fred Zeilinga kicking 19 points. The Sharks, who have 23 points, pulled away from title rivals ACT Brumbies, upset by the Melbourne Rebels, and defending champions Waikato Chiefs, who snatched a late draw with the Bulls. The Brumbies and the Chiefs are both six points off the top. One point further back are the Golden Lions, Waratahs, Auckland Blues and Bulls after seven rounds of the southern hemisphere provincial championship. The Blues downed the Otago Highlanders 30-12 in Auckland and the Bulls drew 34-34 with the Chiefs, while the Golden Lions along with the Central Cheetahs and Western Force had weekend byes. In other games, the Queensland Reds ground out a 22-17 win over South Africa`s Western Stormers and the Wellington Hurricanes won away 29-26 against the Canterbury Crusaders. In Durban, Jake White`s Sharks were always in command against the Waratahs, who were missing Wallaby fullback Israel Folau, suffering from a bruised throat. The home side built up a 12-3 half-time lead before scoring two second-half tries against the visitors, who had defeated the Sharks in 11 of 15 previous meetings.Zeilinga, starting in place of the injured Patrick Lambie, gave a flawless goal-kicking display to finish with five penalties and two conversions. Replacement full-back Gareth Anscombe kicked a stoppage-time touchline conversion to salvage a high-scoring draw for the Chiefs in their match against the Bulls in Pretoria. The successful kick, after fly-half Aaron Cruden dived over, capped a superb comeback by Waikato in a seesaw struggle. The Chiefs trailed by 12 points with three minutes remaining when lock Matt Symons dotted down after a clever line-out ploy caught the South Africans napping. And with time almost up, the New Zealanders adopted sevens-style rugby from their own half, passing repeatedly until Asaeli Tikoirotuma found a gap and Cruden scored. Fullback Jason Woodward scored a club record 27 points as the Rebels upset the Australian conference leaders Brumbies 32-24 on Friday. Woodward could do little wrong, amassing a try, two conversions and six penalties as the Rebels fought back from 10-3 down at halftime. The Auckland Blues, buoyed by the injection of All Blacks Ma`a Nonu and Jerome Kaino, are in the top half of the table after downing the Highlanders. The revenge win, after losing to the Highlanders 29-21 earlier in the season, gave the Blues a third win from six outings. Wallaby fly-half Quade Cooper kicked the Reds to a hard-fought win over the Stormers in Brisbane. The Stormers scored two tries to one, but it was Cooper`s 17 points from a conversion, four penalties and a drop goal that got the Reds home. The Hurricanes scored four tries to three in Christchurch to earn just their second win of the season and leave the Crusaders at the bottom of the New Zealand conference.