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Reasons for optimism? Blues show promise to finish pre-season undefeated
By Patrick McKendry, NZ Herald
The Blues and Hurricanes have come through their final pre-season match at Onewa Domain today relatively unscathed despite the heat and on-field physicality – both of which were unrelenting.
It is the Blues who are likely to go into round one with a little more confidence, though. They outlasted the Hurricanes, who are due to board a 6am flight for Cape Town tomorrow, 29-28, and there was enough there to suggest they will push the Chiefs close at Eden Park next Friday night.
Their scrum was very good in the first half and No 10 Stephen Perofeta appears a shoo-in for a start after leading the attack well and having a hand in his team’s first two tries. They scored five in total to the Hurricanes’ four.
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The Blues lost their accuracy after the break but coach Leon MacDonald made many changes at halftime and the combinations were clearly lacking thereafter.
“We struggled in the second half,” MacDonald admitted. “Obviously we made a few changes and we lost our cohesion. I thought they played pretty well to catch up.”
There were similarities to last week’s win over the Chiefs at Waihi; the Blues just holding off the fast-finishing opposition, but MacDonald didn’t think it would be a trend when the season proper starts.
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“It’s not a conditioning thing – it’s just a little bit of game management. I don’t think we played into the wind well today, but it’s definitely something to be mindful of going into round one.”
He said of Perofeta, who will contest the No 10 jersey with Harry Plummer before Beauden Barrett arrives mid-season: “He attacked the line well and directed play pretty well. Harry didn’t have quite the luxury that Stevie had in terms of front-foot ball but he organised things pretty well and was combative at the line as well.”
For the Hurricanes, who fought back well after conceding a 17-14 lead at halftime, there is positivity despite it being their second pre-season loss in two matches.
They were better than they were against the Crusaders in Ashburton last weekend and they will have TJ Perenara and Jordie Barrett back to play the Stormers at Newlands. Left wing Ben Lam was again one of the quickest on the pitch.
Lock James Blackwell was wearing a moonboot at fulltime due to an injured big toe but coach Jason Holland didn’t think it was too serious.
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All Blacks midfielder Ngani Laumape had one of the toughest workloads of any player on the pitch. He played three quarters of the match and it was a deliberate move from a coach who wants the powerful centre to hit the ground running in round one.
“We wanted to get Ngani through some minutes,” Holland said. “We’ve previously fallen into the trap of going a bit half and half in these games and guys being a little bit underdone when we get to round one. We wanted to get Ngani through 60-65 minutes – the same with Du’Plessis Kirifi – to make sure they’re ready to go next week.”
MacDonald confirmed Rieko Ioane and Patrick Tuipulotu, two other interested bystanders, would be available to play the Chiefs. Prop Karl Tu’inukuafe got through the first half well.
Blues 29 (Tony Lamborn, Jordan Hyland, Dalton Papalii, Akira Ioane, Sam Nock tries; Stephen Perofeta con, Harry Plummer con)
Hurricanes 28 (Ben Lam, Ricky Riccitelli, Jamie Booth, Asafo Aumua tries; Fletcher Smith 2 cons, Jackson Garden-Bachop 2 cons)
Halftime: 17-14
This article first appeared on nzherald.co.nz and was republished with permission.
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Comments on RugbyPass
Je 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 Crusades , you can keep going.
1 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!😭😭😭 !!!
25 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
25 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.
25 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.
25 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 commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
11 Go to comments