'Has Leon turned them into the Crusaders?': Twitter erupts as Blues remain undefeated in Super Rugby Aotearoa
Another impressive showing by the Blues has left Twitter in awe of Leon MacDonald’s side as they maintain their place at the summit of the Super Rugby Aotearoa standings after two rounds of action.
The men from Auckland travelled to Hamilton in search of their first win in the city since 2011, and came away with a hard-fought, but well-deserved, 24-12 victory, with tries to Hoskins Sotutu and Mark Telea sealing the deal against their tryless opponents.
The result should dispel any notion that the Blues stand as title pretenders – rather than title contenders – as they backed up their impressive 30-20 win over the Hurricanes at Eden Park last week with a strong display where many players flourished.
Set to face the Highlanders back at home in seven days’ time, the Blues could expect to see another bumper crowd walk through the turnstiles after Saturday night’s effort, if the reaction on Twitter is anything to go by.
Many punters have lauded the in-form franchise for their efforts against the Chiefs, who many considered to be favourites given the strength of their squad.
Much of the praise was aimed at MacDonald, with one user even suggesting that the former Crusaders star is churning the long-underperforming club into a side that could emulate the franchise he won seven Super Rugby titles with.
The @BluesRugbyTeam haven’t looked this steely and tough in years. Has Leon turned them into the Crusaders ? #CHIvBLU #SuperRugbyAotearoa
— Adam Burns (@AJKBurns) June 20, 2020
Leon MacDonald providing excellent proof that Gatland ball doesn’t work in the Southern Hemisphere #SuperRugbyAotearoa #CHIvBLU
— James Peti (@jpeti267) June 20, 2020
Outstanding win for the hot running @BluesRugbyTeam #CHIvBLU
Franchise record for away wins!
Fantastic rugby all round! Well done @ChiefsRugby @NZRugby @AllBlacks @SuperRugbyNZ #SuperRugbyAotearoa #AucklandBlues #SportWinsTheDay#ProudKiwi #MatthewHunt#RIPMatthewHunt@nzpolice— Capt Yank&Bank? ?? (Timmo) (@KiwiPilotBloke) June 20, 2020
@BluesRugbyTeam were on point today. Even more so in poor conditions. Handling in that last try was off the scale. #CHIvBLU
— Nigel Burke (@nigelburke11) June 20, 2020
#CHIvBLU Been a tough number of years but damn we are looking the business this season @BluesRugbyTeam ??
— Mark Muchai (@Muchaiki) June 20, 2020
Are the Blues really going to win #SuperRugbyAotearoa, mullets and all? Good for them.#CHIvBLU
— No Teslas in the Hood (@theweekdaez) June 20, 2020
Definitely not saying it's our year…but I am thinking it!!! #BluesAllDay #CHIvBLU
— Robbie Feldmann (@robbie_f84) June 20, 2020
The Auckland Blues register their first win in Hamilton since 2011.
This team is looking Impressive.#SuperRugbyAotearoa #CHIvBLU
— NXTGEN Group (@nxtgensportsgrp) June 20, 2020
Still a fair few penalties, but it felt like both sides were trying to be more disciplined in that match.
Great victory for the Blues. Brilliant late try to seal the win after hanging in there in the first half. #SuperRugbyAotearoa #CHIvBLU
— Oli Lathrope (@olilathrope) June 20, 2020
#CHIvBLU blues of previous years lose that match comfortably! Fantastic win after being under the pump due to our own discipline
— Rob Maxwell (@rmax84) June 20, 2020
While MacDonald earned plenty of compliments for the work he’s done from the coaching ranks, others took to Twitter to express how impressed they were with the performances of the Auckland side’s forward pack.
Among those to have stood out was player of the match Hoskins Sotutu, who has established himself as one of the most promising young players in Super Rugby this year, and has been earmarked as a potential successor to Kieran Read as the All Blacks‘ No. 8.
Elsewhere, skipper Patrick Tuipulotu was another subject of praise, with one fan going as far to say the 27-year-old – who earlier this week signed a three-year contract extension with New Zealand Rugby – is the best lock on the planet.
Really good win by the Blues. Their resurgance continues. Patrick Tuipulotu and Hoskins Sotutu were absolutely superb #CHIvBLU #SuperRugbyAotearoa
— Sean (@SeanTafirenyika) June 20, 2020
2/2 for @BluesRugbyTeam – Hoskin and Patty were huge, love the speed Nock and Christie deliver the ruck ball at, for so long we’ve suffered ponderous half backs and now we actually can look deadly with fast ball #CHIvBLU
— Rogan (@rmtempler) June 20, 2020
@PattyTuipulotu best lock in the world?
He is for me #CHIvBLU
— ??????n? Ben (@bengully) June 20, 2020
How good was big Pat Tuipulotu today though ?? #CHIvBLU #SuperRugbyAotearoa
— FlyingG Sports (@FlyinggSports) June 20, 2020
After their fair share of false dawns over the last few years, the Blues look like they’re really and truly back. #SuperRugbyAotearoa #CHIvBLU
— Leonard Solms (@LeonSolms) June 20, 2020
Due to the conditions it wasn’t really a platform for attacking rugby, although the Blues did a good job of bottling up Mckenzie he couldn’t get anything going. We knew the Blues had the back, but the forwards showed grit tonight. Sotutu pure quality, the future? #CHIvBLU
— Ciaron Noble (@CiaronNoble98) June 20, 2020
Hoskins Sotutu will be an All Black. #CHIvBLU
— Roland Rutihinda (@RoroRuti) June 20, 2020
Regardless of where Sotutu and Tuipulotu stand in the national set-up, it’s clear to see there is plenty of hype surrounding this exciting Blues team, which appears to finally be realising its potential as title candidates after 17 trophy-less years.
Comments on RugbyPass
Hold the phone, decline over-rated. Is it a one game, dead cat bounce or the real thing? Has the Penney dropped? Stay tuned.
40 Go to commentsTotally deserved win for the Crusaders Far smarter than the Chiefs who seem to be avoiding the basics when it matters Hotham showed them what was missing and Hannah seems a real find - a tad light but that can be fixed over time
8 Go to commentsGreat insight into the performance culture with Sarries and I predict Christie will be a fixture in the Scotland team now for some time to come. However, he is slightly missing his own point around Scotland “being soft” when he cites physicality examples in defence of that slight. The issue is much closer to the example he referenced around feeling off before a game but being told “it doesn’t matter, you can still play well” by Farrell. Until Scotland can get their psyche in that square, they will carry on folding under extreme pressure…
1 Go to comments> We are having to adapt, evolve and innovate more than when we were in Super Rugby where there was only really one style that everybody had to play to gain the most success. Have = able to? Interesting what that one style might be? I thought SA sides still had bad tours now, or at least bad schedule, months away? Those extra few hours flights have to be a killer though, no surprise to see their sides doing so badly at the start of the season each year. I wouldn’t enjoy that unfairness as a supporter.
5 Go to commentsThe problem for NZ, and Aus, is they ripped up the SR model and lost a massive chunk of revenue that hasn’t been replaced. Don’t forget SA clubs went North because they were left with no choice, Argy unceremoniously binned and Japan cast adrift. Now SR wasn’t perfect, far from it, but they’ve jumped into something without an effective plan, so far, to replace what they’ve lost. The biggest revenue potential now lies in Japan but it won’t be easy or quick to unlock, they are incredibly insular in culture as a nation. In the meantime, there is a serious time bomb sitting under SH rugby and if it happens then the current financial challenges will look like a picnic. IF the Boks follow their provincial teams and head north then it’s revenue meltdown. Not guaranteed to happen but the status quo is a very odd hybrid, with the Boks pointing one way and the clubs pointing the other way. And for as long as that remains then the threat is real.
40 Go to commentsI think Etene has had some good tuition, likely while at the Warriors to be a professional that helped his rugby jump, but he was certainly thrown in the deep end way too early. Should have arguably 20 less SR caps, and therefor a way better record that he does at his age, but his development would have been fast tracked by the need to satiate his signing away from league. Again, credit to him and others that he has done it so well. Easy to fall over under that pressure in the big leagues like that but he kept at it when I myself wasn’t sure he was good enough.
1 Go to commentsAwesome story. I wonder what a bigger American (SA) scene might have mean for Brex.
1 Go to comments“Johnny McNicholl and the Crusaders” save a Penney. Who has been in camp this week and showed them how to play?
8 Go to commentsSo, reports of the Crusaders’ demise / terminal decline are perhaps just - slightly - premature/exaggerated…? 🤔 Will we see a deep-dive into that by the estimable Rugbypass scribes, and maybe one or two mea culpas? Thought not.
8 Go to comments1. The Chiefs are rudderless without DMac, which enhances his AB chances 2. Chiefs pack are powderpuffs. The hard men arent there anymore 3. They had their golden title chance last yr and wont threaten this yr. Gone in second round of playoffs.
8 Go to commentsHonestly, why did you have to publish such a foolish article the day they play us? 😂
40 Go to comments> They are not standalone entities. They are linked to an amateur association which holds the FFR licence that allows the professional side to compete in the league. That’s a great rule. This looks like the chicken or egg professional scenario. How long is it going to be before the club can break even (if that is even a thing in French rugby)? If the locals aren’t into well it would be good to se them drop to amateur level (is it that far?). Hope they can reset from this level and be more practical, there will be a time when they can rebuild (if France has there setup right).
1 Go to commentsWhat about changing the ball? To something heavier and more pointed that bounces unpredictably. Not this almost round football used these days.
35 Go to commentsThis 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”?
35 Go to commentsWow, didn’t realise there was such apathy to URC in SA, or by Champions Cup teams. Just read Nick’s article on Crusaders, are Sharks a similar circumstance? I think SA rugby has been far more balanced than NZs, no?
4 Go to commentsBut 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.
40 Go to commentsIt could be coincidental or prescient that the All Blacks most dominant period under Steve Hansen was when the Crusaders had their least successful period under Todd Blackadder and then the positions reversed when Razor took over the Crusaders.
40 Go to commentsDefinitely sound read everybodyexpects immediate results these days, I don't think any team would travel well at all having lost three of the most important game changers in the game,compiled with the massive injury list they are now carrying, good to see a different more in depth perspective of a coaches history.
3 Go to commentsSinckler is a really big loss for English rugby.
2 Go to commentsThanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause
40 Go to comments