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Australia's Super Rugby Trans-Tasman misery continues as Blues thump Brumbies in Auckland

By AAP
(Photo by MICHAEL BRADLEY/AFP via Getty Images)

The Brumbies have unravelled after building a promising lead to fall to the Blues 38-10 in Auckland on Saturday.

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Hooker Connal McInerney scored from a Brumbies maul to turn a period of dominance into a 10-7 lead with five minutes to play in the first half at Eden Park.

But they went to the break down 17-10, a penalty after a sloppy restart followed by a weaving try to Finlay Christie that exposed some flaky defence close to the line.

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The Blues didn’t give Dan McKellar’s men a sniff in the second half, AJ Lam’s try with 20 minutes to play creating a 31-10 lead before Folau Fainga’a was yellow-carded after continuous Brumbies infringements.

Halfback Nic White completed a successful return from injury, engineering a crafty assault of the short-priced favourites in the first half.

They played close to the lines to expose the Blues’ line-out and build momentum from their scrum.

That helped the Brumbies overcome an opening try to the Blues that came a fter a head-scratching line-out penalty that had everyone confused.

But the Brumbies then allowed the red-headed Christie to duck and dive between five Brumbies close to the line, the visitors finished with 31 missed tackles as the Blues also dominated the breakdown.

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“He looked like a ginger running from the sun looking for shade,” Blues captain Tom Robinson told the broadcast post-game.

“He’s such an awesome dude and it was a huge moment; that little win there got us that momentum.

“In the first half we let them in through what we call dumb-arse penalties … and we sorted them out in the second half.”

It completed a tough slog of three games across the Tasman since their gutting loss to the Queensland Reds in the Super Rugby AU final.

Blues 38 (Tries to Kurt Eklund, Finlay Christie, Bryce Heem, AJ Lamand TJ Faiane; 4 conversions and penalty to Otere Black, penalty to Harry Plummer)

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Brumbies 10 (Try to Connal McInerney; conversion and penalty to Noah Lolesio; yellow card to Folau Fainga’a)

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Jon 8 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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j
john 11 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

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