Super Rugby: Bulls exit Super Rugby after defeat in Melbourne

The Rebels ended all hopes of the Bulls reaching the Super Rugby post-season with a 21-20 victory in Melbourne.

The visitors led by 10 points after half-an-hour, only to be overtaken in the 59th minute when Lopeti Timani’s converted try gave the Rebels a slender lead.

Although the final 20 minutes failed to yield a single point, the Bulls were angered by the decision to rule out a try in the 62nd minute.

Burger Odendaal appeared to ground the ball but, after viewing video replays of the incident, the television match official opted to disallow the try.

The Bulls are making an early exit from the competition for the second straight season, increasing the pressure on under-fire coach Frans Ludeke.

They began strongly with prop Dean Greyling scoring a fifth minute try, only for the Rebels to hit back with a well-worked try off a scrum for No 8 Sean McMahon.

Blindside flanker Pieter Labuschagne made it 17-7 off the back of a rolling maul on 30 before fly-half Jack Debreczeni reduced the arrears to just three points on the stroke of half-time.

Giant lock Timani crashed over just before the hour with a Mike Harris conversion making it 21-20 which, despite both team's effort, remained the score at the final whistle.

Bulls’ skipper Pierre Spies said: "I must give credit to the Rebels, they kept pressure on us and we couldn't get out of our half for a very long time and they also put pressure on our scrum."

Meanwhile, in the all-New Zealand battle in Auckland, the Crusaders were far too strong for the Blues who were trounced 34-11.

Canterbury outscored their hosts by four tries to one to keep alive their slender hopes of qualifying for the play-offs.

Dan Carter kicked all four conversion attempts while adding a brace of penalties for a total of 14 points at Eden Park.

Elsewhere, the Chiefs sealed a play-off spot as they outplayed Reds 24-3 in Brisbane.

The hosts could only muster a first half penalty by Quade Cooper, while Bryce Heem, Liam Messam, and Charlie Ngatai touched down for the Chiefs.

The visitors from New Zealand produced a strong defensive display at Lang Park where the hosts struggled with handling errors.

It was their sixth home defeat this season and will heap more pressure on their coach Richard Graham.

The Waratahs booked their place in the playoffs after a hat-trick of tries from fullback Israel Folau helped secure a 58-33 thrashing of South Africa's Cheetahs on Saturday.

The Waratahs moved to the top of the Australian conference after the bonus-point win and lead the ACT Brumbies by virtue of having more victories in this year's competition with both teams on 47 points from 15 matches.

Even if they are pipped to top-spot by the Brumbies in the final round of league matches next weekend, the Sydney-based side will not finish lower than sixth in the Super Rugby table, which is enough to secure their passage to the knockout stages.

The Waratahs ran in nine tries against the worst defence in the competition with Folau leading the way with his three scores. Flanker Michael Hooper, wings Matt Carraro (two) and Taqele Naiyaravoro, centre Adam Ashley-Cooper and fly-half Bernard Foley also crossed the tryline.

Foley converted five of those scores and kicked a penalty.

The Cheetahs played their usual attacking game as Springbok wing Cornal Hendricks and centre Francois Venter grabbed a brace of tries each to go with a score from flank Boom Prinsloo from a driving maul.

Full-back Coenie van Wyk kicked three conversions and fly-half Daniel Marais another.

The Stormers were held to a 19-19 draw by the Lions but it was enough for them to win the South African Conference and qualify for Super Rugby's play-offs.

The result put the Cape Town-based side three points clear of the Lions, who cannot catch them despite being their nearest rivals as they have a bye in the last regular season round.

Nic Groom, Dillyn Lleyds and Nizaam Carr scored tries for the hosts while Faf de Klerk, Schalk van der Merwe and Malcolm Marx touched down for the Lions.

Groom opened the scoring with the first try of the match in the sixth minute which Demetri Catrakilis was unable to convert.

The Stormers fly-half left the field shortly after due to injury and then failed a concussion test meaning his game was over.

De Klerk levelled for the visitors 10 minutes later after sniping over in the corner, and a successful conversion by Elton Jantjies edged the Lions in front.

The Stormers moved back in front just before the half hour mark when the ball was moved through hands and found Leyds on the wing, who dotted down. Substitute Kurt Coleman took the conversion but missed.

The Lions were back on level terms before the break, though, when the television match official decided Van der Merwe had successfully touched the ball down from a drive over the line.

Jantjies sent the conversion wide, as did Coleman from a penalty attempt just before the half-time hooter to leave the scores locked at 12-12 at the break.

Carr raced in for the Stormers' third try of the match in the 52nd minute with Coleman this time nailing the conversion to put the hosts clear.

The Lions rallied, though, and wave after wave of attack tested the hosts' resilience, and they finally buckled as prop Steven Kitshoff was shown a yellow card.

The visitors kept up the pressure and the result was Marx driving over the line for a third try, with Marnitz Boshoff slotting the conversion with four minutes remaining.

Harold Vorster sniped down the wing in the final play of the game for the Lions but was caught, and despite their desire to continue attacking, the visitors lost the ball and the whistle was blown with neither side able to claim victory.