Thomas Waldrom scored two tries and set up two others from No. 8 in a dominant scrum as the Canterbury Crusaders beat South Africa's Cheetahs 45-6 in a Super 14 rugby match Saturday. The Crusaders used their scrum power as a platform to score seven tries - four either to or through Waldrom - in a win which lifted them temporarily to the top of the championship standings. Waldrom scored tries in the 33rd and 39th minutes - the second from a pushover scrum - and contributed to tries by Ryan Crotty in the 26th minute and Sean Maitland in the 56th minute. Halfback Kahn Fotuali'i, prop Ben Franks and winger Zac Guildford also scored tries for the Crusaders. The Crusaders' scrum was the key to their dominant performance and was the area from where they launched many of their most dangerous attacks. Their threat was built on their scrum dominance but increased by turnovers as the Cheetahs gave up easy possessions. Reds in semis hunt Winger Rod Davies scored the clinching try off a stolen Bulls lineout to give the Queensland Reds a 19-12 win over the defending Super 14 champion Bulls in Brisbane Saturday. The Reds led 8-7 at halftime and increased that lead to 19-7 after Davies' try and two penalties by playmaker Quade Cooper. Pedrie Wannenburg scored an unconverted Bulls try with 12 minutes left to pull the South Africans to 19-12, but the Reds held on despite sustained late pressure before 26,000 fans to improve to 6-3 and move into fourth place. Blues beat W. Force 38-17 All Blacks winger Joe Rokocoko scored three tries as the Auckland Blues beat the Western Force 38-17 Saturday to keep alive their playoff chances in rugby's Super 14. Rokocoko scored tries in the 17th, 25th and 52nd minutes as the Blues beat the struggling Force by six tries to two. Sharks beat Lions The Sharks held on to beat the Lions 32-28 Saturday in a bruising South African derby in the Super 14. Coming off a bye week, the Durban-based Sharks started strongly to open a 19-6 lead in 23 minutes after tries from Patrick Lambie, Odwa Ndungane and Bismarck du Plessis.
