Early pacesetters the Waikato Chiefs made it three wins out of three in the new season with a hard-fought 49-34 win over the ACT Brumbies on Saturday as the torrent of tries continued in the third round of Super Rugby Pacific.
Queensland Reds handed Western Force their first loss of the campaign in the last clash of the round to join the Chiefs and New South Wales Waratahs as the only unbeaten teams, although the Australian teams have played only twice.
The Chiefs have reached the last two playoff finals with some scintillating backline rugby and All Blacks centres Quinn Tupaea and Anton Lienert-Brown put on another show on Saturday, combining for three of their team's six tries.
The Brumbies matched them try-for-try on a sweltering day in Hamilton, however, and were tied at 15-15 at halftime and again at 29-29 in the last quarter as they looked to get back to winning ways after being upset by the Force last week.
It was not until Josh Jacomb, kicking instead of Damian McKenzie after the fullback suffered a knock, converted a 77th-minute penalty that the Chiefs pulled sufficiently clear to be assured of a fourth straight win over the Brumbies.
"It was definitely a tough game out there," said Chiefs skipper Tupou Vaa'i.
"We knew that Brumbies were going to come out firing after last week... they definitely attacked our edges quite a bit today and we knew they had speedsters out wide."
The Reds later rallied from an early 14-0 deficit for a 28-24 victory over the Force in Perth that put them four points behind the Chiefs at the top of the standings.
Centre Josh Flook crossed twice for the Reds and winger Filipo Daugunu burrowed over the line in the final seconds for the try that won an arm-wrestle of a contest.
DEFENDING CHAMPIONS ON THE BOARD
The Auckland Blues finally got a win on the board in Wellington on Saturday after Mark Tele'a scored a stunning try in the 70th minute and the defending champions held on for a 33-29 win over the Hurricanes.
The Waratahs left it late for the second match in a row at Sydney Football Stadium on Friday, securing a 29-24 victory over Fijian Drua with a penalty try off a rolling maul two minutes from time.
New Waratahs coach Dan McKeller admitted that plenty of work still needed to be done to gel his wealth of talent into a team but could take some pleasure from having already matched the team's tally of wins from last season.
"Speaking to the boys, I think they all agree that they probably would have lost that game in the past," he said.
Like the Drua, Moana Pasifika will consider themselves unlucky to still be without a win having played some fine rugby in the first three rounds.
Inspired by a brilliant individual try from skipper Ardie Savea, Moana kept the Otago Highlanders scoreless in the second half in Auckland on Friday and came within an ace of a stirring comeback win in their first home match of the season.
Highlanders co-captain Timoci Tavatavanawai snuffed out those hopes with another crucial jackal in the dying minutes, however, and the south island team backed up last week's upset of the Blues with a 31-29 victory.
