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New Zealand's Waikato Chiefs scored a late fourth try to snatch a bonus point and move a step closer to the semi-finals with a 28-14 win over South Africa's Stormers at Newlands.

The Chiefs moved to second in the standings with two rounds to play. The Stormers, by contrast, slumped to their eighth loss of the season and also failed to do fellow South African sides the Bulls and Sharks a favour by beating the Chiefs.

The Wellington Hurricanes top the standings with 39 points, two clear of the Chiefs ahead of next week's meeting between the two New Zealand sides in Hamilton.

Although the Stormers dominated the opening exchanges, scoring the first try of the match through fly-half Willem de Waal in the 16th minute, they spent the rest of the half on defence.

The Chiefs absorbed the early pressure and then started to command almost every aspect of the game, scoring twice before the break.

Flanker Liam Messam rounded off a sustained Chiefs attack with their first try of the match in the 24th minute.

The New Zealanders' second came on the stroke of halftime through scrumhalf Toby Morland.

Centre Richard Kahui (pictured) burst away and made 50 metres before offloading to the supporting Morland for an easy canter under the crossbar.

The pair combined for the Chiefs' third try in the 65th minute when Kahui again ran an excellent straight line before feeding Morland for his second.

Kahui then scored the bonus-point-scoring fourth try three minutes from the end.

Bulls 32-29 Western Force

The Bulls beat the Western Force 32-29 despite being outscored by four tries to three in an enthralling Super 14 encounter in Pretoria.

With 37 points, they are two behind leaders Hurricanes of New Zealand and two ahead of South Africa's other semi-final hopefuls, the Sharks.

The Bulls took just three minutes to open their account with a penalty by fly-half Morne Steyn.

The Australian side replied immediately when fullback Drew Mitchell scored under the posts after an excellent chip from Matt Giteau.

Springbok wing Bryan Habana then scythed through the Force defence to score near the posts and hand the initiative back to the home side.

Giteau's penalty after 35 minutes made it 10-8 to the visitors but again the Bulls replied, prop Werner Kruger diving over from close range after a good build-up by the forwards.

The Bulls, in search of a four-try bonus point, stepped up a gear in the second half and were rewarded with their third try from fullback Zane Kirchner within a minute of the restart.

Steyn extended the lead to 16 points with two penalties but the visitors refused to give up and kept themselves in the match with a second try by winger Cameron Shepherd.

Steyn's fourth penalty kept the visitors at bay but his yellow card for a dangerous charge galvanised the Force, who scored two tries in the dying minutes through Josh Tatupu and Ryan Cross to register a bonus point and come within one score of what would have been an astonishing victory.

Shark 23-15 Otago Highlanders

The Sharks beat the Otago Highlanders 23-15 in Durban to record their first win in three games.

The home side, coming off the back of two defeats and a bye, looked rusty against the New Zealanders fighting to stay in the reckoning.

With two rounds remaining, the Sharks have 35 points, while the Highlanders remained 10th with 23 points.

The Sharks opened the scoring in a scrappy first half with a 10th minute penalty by scrum-half Rory Kockott.

The Highlanders replied almost immediately with a try by replacement hooker Jason Rutledge, converted by fly-half Matthew Berquist, to make it 7-3.

The home side regained the lead in the 17th minute when lock Steven Sykes barged over after a good break in midfield by winger JP Pietersen, and went 17-7 ahead 10 minutes later when a Berquist knock-on behind his own goal-line was pounced on by flanker Jacques Botes.

Berquist made partial amends when he slotted a 35th minute penalty that narrowed the deficit to a single converted try before scrum-half Jimmy Cowan dived over on the stroke of half-time.

The second half was characterised by numerous handling errors and poor option taking, with both sides unable to string together enough phases to threaten the line.

Kockott added two penalties to extend the lead to eight points and make the game safe, but was then red-carded in the closing minutes for a punch on Highlanders flanker Adam Thomson (pictured).

The Sharks were further reduced to 13 men in injury-time when replacement flanker Keegan Daniel was sin-binned for a trip, but the visitors were unable to convert the last-second penalty that would have given them a bonus point.

Queensland Reds 13-52 ACT Brumbies

The ACT Brumbies rebounded from their worst defeat in Super 14 rugby to hammer fellow Australians the Queensland Reds 52-13 in Brisbane.

The Brumbies piled on seven tries in a powerful display to claim maximum points away from home just a week after they suffered a 49-point loss to competition leaders the Wellington Hurricanes.

The win kept the two-time champions in the hunt for a place in this year's semi-finals with two rounds of the regular season to go.

"It's a nice way to turn it around. Last week was very disappointing. We let a lot of people down," said Brumbies captain Stephen Hoiles, who scored two of his team's tries.

Ben Alexander, Adam Ashley-Cooper, Francis Fainifo, Gene Fairbanks and Peter Kimlin also scored tries for the Brumbies while Australia skipper Stirling Mortlock kicked seven conversions and a penalty.

Will Genia scored both tries for the Reds, who lost four players to injury including playmaker Berrick Barnes who strained his groin in the warm-up before the match.

Reuters