Trabant » more than a year off to reach the World Cup podium once each

WELLINGTON, New Zealand -- The New South Wales Waratahs will stand apart from the potential chaos of the last round of the Super Rugby regular season this weekend. By beating the Highlanders 44-16 last Sunday, the Waratahs clinched first place on the overall table and afforded themselves the only sense of certainty belonging to any of the teams still involved in the playoffs race. They know that whatever happens this weekend, they will have a weeks rest before hosting a home semifinal. For every other team from the second-placed Crusaders to the ninth-placed Blues, who need events of almost miraculous proportions to reach the playoffs, almost nothing is assured. The last and most intriguing episode of the regular season has still to play out. For the Waratahs, with their fate already decided, Saturdays match against the 12th-placed Reds should be little more than an undemanding end to the regular season and a light prelude to their first semifinal in four years. But matches between New South Wales and Queensland, beginning in 1882, are invested with such a potent interstate rivalry, even antipathy, that the Waratahs cannot expect an easy time. Queensland, champions in 2011, have little to salvage from a season in which their performance has fallen well short of expectations, but a win over New South Wales would at least be a small consolation. Waratahs coach Michael Cheika has refused to name an under-strength lineup for the match to spare his frontline players for the semifinal. "You could (injure a player) at any time, in training or regular games," Cheika said. "This is a contact sport, you dont go into it worrying about things like that." In other matches in the final round, the Christchurch-based Crusaders will meet the Dunedin-based Highlanders in a contest for first place in the New Zealand conference. The Crusaders are currently in second place with 46 points and the Highlanders in fourth place with 42, needing a bonus point win to finish ahead of the Crusaders. A single bonus point would be enough to ensure the Crusaders top the New Zealand conference but they need a win, ideally a good one, to hold out the challenge of South Africas Sharks for second place and the other home semifinal. The Sharks wrapped up the South African conference several weeks ago and are currently in third place overall, equal on points with the Crusaders, sharing the Crusaders tally of 10 wins and only eight points behind on points differential. The Durban-based Sharks face the Stormers in the final round -- a team to which they lost only two weeks ago -- and also need to win to enforce their challenge for second place. If both teams win and finish the regular season with 11 wins, points differential may decide which takes the preferred route through the playoffs. The Highlanders need to recover quickly from last weekends six-try mauling at the hands of the Waratahs to take their place in the playoffs for the first time in 12 years. That position isnt yet safe and they could be displaced, depending on the outcome of matches between the ACT Brumbies and the Western Force, the Blues and defending the champion Chiefs. All Blacks captain Richie McCaw has been ruled out of Saturdays match with a rib injury: a minor setback for the Crusaders who can finish no further back than fourth but who are determined to achieve a conference victory and second place. The Chiefs must beat the Blues in Auckland to have any chance of extending their two-year reign as Super Rugby champions. They enter the final round in eighth place and must also depend on the outcome of other matches to gain a top-six finish. The Blues must beat the Chiefs by a clear 38 points and with five tries to preserve their frail hope of a playoffs spot. The Brumbies, in sixth place, and Force, in seventh -- both with 40 points -- also meet in a must-win clash between playoffs hopefuls. The winner of Fridays match at Canberra will advance to the playoffs while the losers season is over. The most anxious role in the final round belongs to the Hurricanes who are currently fifth with 41 points but who have the bye and must allow the outcome of other matches determine whether their season continues. Blake Comeau Jersey . With the union re-formed, negotiations with owners will resume Friday on the remaining issues that would be in the collective bargaining agreement, according to a person familiar with the plans. Radek Faksa Jersey . The top-ranked Williams carried her winning momentum from 2013 into the new season, beating No. 2-ranked Victoria Azarenka 6-4, 7-5 on Saturday to defend her title at the Brisbane International and set the tone for the Australian Open. http://www.authenticstarspro.com/Dino-ciccarelli-stars-jersey/ . 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Its arguably the first marquee event of every Winter Olympics, and the mens downhill in recent Olympics has provided surprising storylines. “The one thing about the Olympics especially in the speed disciplines, it so very rarely goes to the favourite, the favourite has so much pressure, and the variables are greater in downhill,” says CBC alpine analyst Kerrin Lee-Gartner, a 1992 downhill winner. “ Its not to say its a flukey thing, its just that everything has to align right, its harder for the favourite to make it align right in downhill.” In the last 20 years there have been four Olympic downhill winners who had fewer than three World Cup victories before making history: Tommy Moe of the U.S., Frenchmen Jean-Luc Cretier and Antoine Deneriaz, and 2010 winner Didier Defago of Switzerland. The Canadian Cowboys - Erik Guay, Manuel Osborne-Paradis and Jan Hudec - wouldnt qualify as surprise winners from an individual standpoint, but breaking a 20-year Olympic medal drought for the country in alpine skiing certainly would make fans take notice. No Canadian man has ever won a gold or silver medal in alpine. Steve Podborski (1980) and Ed Podivinsky (1994) each won bronze in the downhill. Guay is the likeliest contender to break through. Hes achieved two of his three career goals after winning a Crystal Globe season title in the super-G in 2010 and winning a world championship in downhill a year later. The Mont-Tremblant, Que., native is only missing an Olympic medal, preferably gold, after three separate top five finishes at the Winter Games. Guay has battled back this season from a knee injury to break Podborskis World Cup podium record for Canadian men. He finished seventh in the opening training session on Thursday. Hudec, he of the seven knee surgeries and more recent back injury, has also reached the podium this season. The Calgary native took silver in the super-G in Val Gardenaa, Italy in December.dddddddddddd Osborne-Paradis is waiting to take that next step. Since coming back in late 2012 from a knee injury, the North Vancouver native has had top 10 finishes, but has been unable to reach the podium. Ben Thomsen of Invermere, B.C., finished second on a slightly different Sochi course two years ago, but hes struggled mightily this season.There are two strong international contenders to buck the recent trend of surprise Olympic downhill champs. Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway, who won a medal of every colour in Vancouver, has run his total of World Cup downhill wins to eight this season with a pair of victories. Bode Miller of the United States has wowed ski fans again this season, coming back at the age of 36 after more than a year off to reach the World Cup podium once each in downhill, super-G and giant slalom. Millers yet to win since his comeback, but coming up golden for a sixth career Olympic medal would be just his style. The following men would also not be surprise winners: Dominik Paris and Christof Innerhofer of Italy, Adrian Theaux of France and Patrick Kueng of Switzerland. Even 36-year-old Didier Defago put his name into consideration again after his first victory in over two years last month, a super-G at Kitzbuehel. The lengthy course has received mostly positive feedback from the skiers, with many remarking on the "big air" jumps. 2010 Olympic downhill: Didier Defago, Switzerland (G), Aksel Lund Svindal, Norway (S), Bode Miller, USA (B) Olympic alpine skiing schedule: Sunday, Feb. 9: Mens downhill Monday, Feb. 10: Womens super-combined Wednesday, Feb. 12: Womens downhill Friday, Feb. 14: Mens super-combined Saturday, Feb. 15: Womens super-G Sunday, Feb. 16: Mens super-G Tuesday, Feb. 18: Womens giant slalom Wednesday, Feb. 19: Mens giant slalom Friday, Feb. 21: Womens slalom Saturday, Feb. 22: Mens slalom ' ' '