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Blues wing Mark Tele’a excited about playing ‘hungry’ Crusaders
All Blacks and Blues wing Mark Tele’a is looking forward to taking on a “hungry” Crusaders outfit at Eden Park this weekend, with the defending champions desperate to snap their winless run.
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Tele’a, who is World Rugby’s reigning Breakthrough Player of the Year, has started the season with some strong form as the wing leads the Blues in carries, metres, defenders beaten, offloads and line breaks.
As for the Blues as a collective, the Aucklanders have opened the Super Rugby Pacific season with three wins from four starts but they’re still yet to quite hit their stride.
The Blues will be eager to make it two wins on the bounce this weekend, though, when come up against traditional rivals the Crusaders in a blockbuster New Zealand derby.
Reigning champions the Crusaders may have the rugby world talking after their winless start to the season, but Tele’a and the Blues aren’t taking their opponents lightly.
“It’s the Crusaders bro, you can never look down on the Crusaders,” Tele’a said, as reported by Stuff. “Their legacy and history shows how good they are.
“We’ve got massive respect for them and their record against us is amazing.
“We’re up for the challenge and I know they’ll be up for it too. Even though they’re 0-4, they can come to town, knock us off and get their season going.
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“They’re hungry and as a team we’ve got to step it up and be as hungry as they are.”
The Blues started their season with promising wins over the Fijian Drua and Highlanders before going down to the still-undefeated Hurricanes at Wellington’s Sky Stadium.
While the Blues were able to return to winning ways with a hard-fought 12-10 win over the Waratahs in Sydney last weekend, it was far from their best performance.
Ofa Tu’ungafasi scored the visitor’s first try of the night with a score just before the half-time break, and a second-half scrap followed with Stephen Perofeta missing multiple shots at goal.
After making it a two-point game late in the piece, the Waratahs were in with a chance as the clock ticked beyond the 78-minute mark. But the Blues managed to hold on for an unconvincing 12-10 win.
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“We’re doing good,” Tele’a added. “There’s still a lot of errors we can improve on, but I feel like we’re in a good spot.
“You can’t just go out and gel from the start. You need those connections and the only way to build them is by playing and training. The more we do that, the better we’ll get.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Let’s not forget about Ardie Savea just yet.
4 Go to commentsThe URC and the Euro Championscup can’t run at the same time, basically dilutes both competitions.
1 Go to comments“While Sotutu should start at No.8 for the All Blacks against England, but it’s only in that arena that he can prove just how good he really is.” And that my friends is where simply hasnt shone despite multiple opportunities. Even in this performance you can see what did him in in the test arena..he almost always still runs at the opposition almost ramrod upright making him easier to stop than it should be.
4 Go to commentsShould have been 0-0 and a message from SR CEO to both teams - “don’t worry about turning up next year”.
4 Go to commentsGreat work Owen Franks. A great of this team, scoring his first try for the Crusaders since 2010.He was beaming, justifiably. A fine win, he and the rest did the job up front.
1 Go to commentsDanny Care. Lang in die tand.
1 Go to commentsBig empty stadium does nothing for atmosphere but munster are playing well with solid performance
1 Go to commentsYes, Fiji can win the World Cup! With that belief plus their christian faith🙏 and hard work it is achievable. Great article. Ian Duncan Fiji resident 1981-84
2 Go to commentsInteresting comments about Touch. England’s hosting the Touch World Cup this year and the numbers have exploded since their last World Cup in 2019, something like 70% more teams and 40 nations taking part. And England Touch have made a big thing about how many universities are in their BUCS University Touch Championship as well as Sport England membership. Can only see this growing even more domestically as more people become aware of it
10 Go to comments“Cortez Ratima is light years ahead of anyone on current form, while TJ Perenara has also skyrocketed into contention following the unfortunate injury to the talented Cam Roigard.” At last some sanity. Hitherto so many pundits have been wittering on about Finlay Christie to the point one wondered if they were observing a FC in a parallel universe where the FC they saw wasnt just the mediocre Shayne Philpott project of Fosters hapless AB reign in the real world. Ratima, Perenara and Fakatava are the ONLY logical 9s for Razor now Roigard is crocked.
4 Go to commentsThis game was just as painful as the Hurricanes game. It was real fork-in-the-eye stuff.
4 Go to commentsNow if they could just fire the Crusaders ground PA guy who likes to play his dance music and just loves the sound of his own voice the entire game, even when play is going on. And I thought their brass band thing of a few years ago was bad.
5 Go to commentsUnfortunately when you lose by far the two form players this season in Roigard and Aumua, you're left replacing two game changing Tanks with a couple of pea-shooters. Which is also about the speed of TJs pass.
4 Go to commentsBit rich coming from the guy with zero loyalty to anyone or any team, including happily taking a players place in a league world cup squad because well, SBW wanted to play in it and thus an already named player got told he was no longer going. And airing stuff like this, which may or may not be true, doesn't exactly say you're a stand up guy either SBW. Just looking to keep his name in lights as usual.
38 Go to commentsTamati Tua. …the Taniwha NPC midfielder. Ollie Sapsford, Hawkes Bay NPC midfielder…doing well
4 Go to commentsFiji deserve to be in the rugby championship, fans love seeing the Fijian national team play, the Fijian Drua is a wonderful idea but the players can still be stolen to play for NZ and AUS…
2 Go to commentsThe first concern for this afternoon are wheather forecast…
1 Go to commentsWhy cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
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