South Africa's Bulls stormed to their second Super 14 title in three years with a record-breaking 61-17 victory over the Waikato Chiefs in Pretoria. It was by far the biggest margin of victory in a final in the competition's 14-year history, surpassing the ACT Brumbies' 36-6 win over the Natal Sharks in 2001. The Bulls won the 2007 final by a single point and a tight contest was expected again but the home side made a mockery of the pre-match predictions by scoring eight tries against the New Zealanders.
In a pulsating match, the Chiefs silenced the 52,000-strong crowd at Loftus Versfeld when they opened the scoring in the seventh minute with a try by the right wing Lelia Masaga. That, though, was as good as it got for New Zealand's best team in the 2009 tournament. The Bulls struck back with three tries in seven minutes, two of them from scrum-half Fourie du Preez, as they scored 27 unanswered points in the space of 20 minutes to end the match as a contest long before the half-time break.
Fly-half Morne Steyn, who kicked four drop goals against the Crusaders in the semi-final, kicked another midway through the first half en route to a personal tally of 19 points and a possible place in the Springbok team to play the British and Irish Lions.
The Chiefs briefly threatened a comeback when fullback Mils Muliaina scored underneath the posts within five minutes of the restart but the Bulls responded with another four second-half tries through the captain Victor Matfield, Wynand Olivier, Pierre Spies and Danie Rossouw. * Reuters