Super Rugby: Chiefs edge ahead of Crusaders after bonus point win

The Chiefs edged ahead of the Crusaders in the race for the Super Rugby title with a 36-15 bonus points win over Melbourne Rebels.

The teams started round 13 of the championship tied on 37 points, with the Crusaders ahead on points difference.

Crusaders beat Australian conference leaders the Waratahs 29-10 on Friday to go top but were denied a bonus point by a late NSW try.

The Chiefs made an explosive start, opening a 19-3 lead after 23 minutes with tries for Seta Tamanivalu, Nathan Harris and Toni Pulu. They led 26-10 at half-time but took 29 second-half minutes to add to their score through an Aaron Cruden penalty.

Chiefs coach Dave Rennie joked that his "inspirational half-time team talk" might have been responsible for their loss of momentum.

Live Super Rugby

"The first 35 minutes we were really sharp, showed good intensity, built pressure and scored from that," Rennie said. "But we just never really got going in the second half and that was disappointing."

Crusaders coach Todd Blackadder described his team's first-half performance as "unbelievable" in extremely wet conditions.

"We talked about the weather conditions and playing it down there with a bit of kick space and when we had territory we played like it was a dry day and passes seemed to stick," he said.

In South Africa, the Johannesburg-based Lions and Durban-based Sharks both recorded easy wins.

The Lions beat Argentina's Jaguares 52-24 and the Sharks won 53-0 against South African rivals the Kings, who have conceded an average of 45 points per game this season.

Live Super Rugby

The Jaguares were without captain Augustin Creevy and No. 8 Leonardo Senatore, who were both suspended, but were in the game at 12-9 with half-time approaching.

But tries either side of the break from Lions forwards Lourens Erasmus and Cyle Brink made it 24-9 and they never looked back.

The Lions lead the South African group as the Cape Town-based Stormers' challenge continued to slip away with a 17-13 loss to the Pretoria-based Bulls.

In a South African derby marked by bone-crunching hits, replacement Tiaan Schoeman kicked a 75th-minute dropped goal for the Bulls to end a late Stormers fightback inspired by a try seven minutes earlier by South Africa centre Damian de Allende.

With just one win from their last five, the Cape Town-based Stormers have slipped behind the Lions, Bulls and Sharks.

Queensland beat Japan's Sunwolves 35-25 but lost Japan test fullback Ayumu Goromaru for the rest of the season after he sufferd a separated right shoulder in the match.