WELLINGTON: The Waikato Chiefs may be suffering a form slump but Aaron Cruden ensured they stayed top of the Super table in round 10 while the pride of South Africa and Australia slumped.
Cruden's 14 points saw the Chiefs scrape home 24-22 over the Coastal Sharks for their eighth win in nine matches and to move five points clear of the Canterbury Crusaders who had the week off.
But the mid-season blues hurt Africa conference leaders Golden Lions and Western Stormers who fell to the Wellington Hurricanes and NSW Waratahs while top Australian sides Melbourne Rebels and ACT Brumbies also suffered defeats.
The fortune reversals did not cause significant change to the conferences but it sent a message that with seven weeks of the regular season remaining the order of the final eight is by no means certain.
On current points, conference leaders Chiefs, Lions, Stormers and Rebels would be joined by the Crusaders, Hurricanes, Northern Bulls and Otago Highlanders in the play-offs.
The Lions, however, are being pressured by the Sharks in Africa 2 conference, the Rebels have a tenuous two-point lead over the Brumbies and Waratahs in Australia, and the bottom New Zealand side Auckland Blues remain in contention to move up from 12th to eighth.
The Chiefs, having waltzed through the early rounds, struggled to beat the Blues and Hurricanes in recent weeks and coach Dave Rennie noted they were flat again against the Sharks.
"When we put them under pressure we stuttered our way through it and we were lucky to get a result," he said.
Cruden, who has played all but 35 minutes of the season, was not at his attacking best, but he took over the kicking duties from Damian McKenzie to prove he can still produce points when needed.
In a battle within a battle, Cruden's decision to take shots at goal instead of McKenzie, the competition's leading points scorer, was designed to show the All Blacks selectors he has what it takes to deserve the 10 jersey.
While he landed four penalties and a conversion, his chief rival to replace Dan Carter in the All Blacks, Beauden Barrett, was also impressive with the boot.
Barrett kicked six conversions and a penalty in the Hurricanes' 50-17 rout of the Lions in Johannesburg.
As the Lions were licking their wounds, a 14-man Stormers also crashed in Cape Town, losing 32-30 to the Waratahs with Michael Hooper scoring an equalising try in the 79th minute and Bernard Foley added the winning conversion.
Twenty minutes earlier, when the Stormers were leading 20-18, Foley had required medical attention after an aerial collision with Lionel Zas which saw the Stormers wing red-carded.
The worst performing New Zealand side, the Blues, were too good for Australia's best the Rebels with a 36-30 victory in Auckland.
The result opened the way for the Brumbies to regain command of the Australian conference but they also fell, beaten 23-10 by a Highlanders side looking to get their season back on track after losing their previous two games.
The Brumbies dominated most of the game, winning the rucks and maul count 145-38 and forcing the Highlanders to make 160 tackles, but they infringed too often with three late Lima Sopoaga penalties settling the outcome.
The Bulls moved to be one point behind the Stormers in the Africa 1 group when they comfortably disposed of the Western Force 42-20.
The Queensland Reds notched their second win of the season, beating the Central Cheetahs 30-17, while the Jaguares bounced back from last week's loss to the Sunwolves by scoring 11 tries in a 73-27 thrashing of the Southern Kings.
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