There were mixed fortunes for the northern contingent in their Super Rugby clashes on the weekend with Alex Newsome's NSW Waratahs stunning the reigning champions, while Sam Carter's ACT Brumbies were rolled by the Queensland Reds and Ben Gunter's Sunwolves beaten by the Lions.
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Earning his second start for the Japanese franchise, who on Friday learnt they were being cut from the competition after 2020, Gunter again impressed although he was forced off early in the second half with what he described as a "big cork on my left upper thigh".
He initially appeared to pick up the injury 20 seconds into the half affecting a tackle, but battled on to the 48th minute.
Picking up where he left off in his debut, the 21-year old again pulled off some "very big defensive efforts" as one of the commentators remarked, and made a couple of telling runs in the 37-24 loss.
Carter and his Brumbies were then beaten 36-14 by the Reds on Sunday afternoon.
The Brumbies were a shadow of the side that had beaten the Waratahs 19-13 the previous week. Nothing seemed to click for the ACT side with their usually infallible line-out falling apart.
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Carter had six runs for 21 metres and was one of the Brumbies top tacklers with 12.
The Waratahs produced the performance of the round from an Australian perspective, ending the Crusaders' record run of 19-straight wins with an emotion-charged 20-12 victory at the SCG on Saturday night.
Starting on the wing Newsome made 57 metres from five runs with one tackle bust.
The win shot the Waratahs to the top of the conference on 14 points. The Rebels are second on 13, followed by the Brumbies (11), Reds (10) and Sunwolves (6).
