'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— Timmo. Capt Yank&Bank? ?? (@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
https://twitter.com/theweekdaez/status/1274263976012967936
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
https://twitter.com/bengully/status/1274264866325508096
How good was big Pat Tuipulotu today though ?? #CHIvBLU #SuperRugbyAotearoa
— FG Rugby (@_fgrugby) 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
Big difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
30 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to comments