Chiefs

We take a look at Round 8 of Super Rugby and round up the action from all the weekend's fixtures, with Israel Dagg's impressive game for the Crusaders.

Following on from our look at the two South African conferences last week, we now turn our attentions to Super Rugby’s Australasian conferences, starting with New Zealand.

New Zealand have made a great start to The Rugby Championship, seeing off the challenges of Argentina and South Africa, and now only Australia stand between them and lifting the southern hemisphere’s grandest prize.

The Highlanders have thumped the Chiefs 36-9 in Super Rugby Round 16 in Invercargill, despite never beating the Chiefs there and only just returning from their South Africa tour.

New Zealand fly-half Aaron Cruden feels like he has been "struck down by a sniper" after discovering the extent of a knee injury that looks set to keep him out of this autumn's Rugby World Cup.

The Super Rugby team of the week has got to be one of the easiest I have had to compile.

A last-gasp penalty from New Zealand fly-half Aaron Cruden guided the Chiefs to a 19-17 Super Rugby victory against the Brumbies earlier today.

New Zealand-born Gareth Anscombe looks set to be named in the Wales squad for this season's RBS 6 Nations Championship.

All Blacks lock Brodie Retallick has been crowned this year's World Rugby player of the year.

There are only six teams left in Super 15 Rugby 2014 and of those teams, only four teams are playing this weekend. Scott Donaldson previews the weekend action.

The Chiefs' hopes of winning a third successive Super Rugby title suffered another hammer blow on Friday as they lost 29-25 to the Highlanders in Dunedin.

A try-scoring double for prop Ben Tameifuna helped reigning Super Rugby champions the Chiefs to a hard-fought 32-20 derby win over the Blues in New Plymouth.

Centre Tevita Kuridrani and Wallabies star Matt Toomua scored two tries apiece as the Brumbies thumped defending Super Rugby champions Chiefs 41-23 at Canberra Stadium.

Defending Super Rugby champions, the Chiefs, are a prime example of a team learning how to win effectively despite not having the big name players.

Colin Slade kicked every single point for the Crusaders as they rallied from behind to beat the Chiefs 18-17 in Hamilton.

Gareth Anscombe kicked 17 points as the Chiefs beat the Reds 22-16 while Nick Cummins scored a hat-trick in a historic Western Force win over the Waratahs in the first two Super Rugby clashes of the day.

The Chiefs mounted a second-half comeback to draw 43-43 with the Cheetahs in a thrilling Super Rugby clash in Bloemfontein.

The Super Rugby Final is here finally after nearly 125 games over about 25 weeks we are down to two teams with the Chiefs hosting the Brumbies. If you picked either of these teams at the start of Super Rugby 2013 then well done! The odds of these teams winning were $7 for the Chiefs and $12 for the Brumbies.

Super Rugby 2013 is almost here and before you sign up for any tipping competitions based on picking the winning teams and margins, check out my analysis.

Super Rugby 2012 is a great stage not only for existing stars like Sonny Bill Williams, Bismarck Du Plessis and Will Genia to strut the stuff, but it is always exciting to see the new talent coming through the ranks and New Zealand's cupboard of young scrum and fly halves look encouraging.