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Watch: Rieko Ioane's top 10 plays of the Super Rugby season

By Online Editors

All Blacks wing and Blues ‘utility back’ Rieko Ioane was one of the Blues shining lights of the 2018 Super Rugby season, despite the Blues only yielding four wins, the 21-year-old speedster consistently gave the Blues fans something to cheer about.

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RugbyPass counts down his top 10 plays of the season.

10. Catch me if you… Oh

First play on the list is this breakaway run against the Waratahs which is both a good play and a blown opportunity. The Blues turn the ball over on their own 5, and Pulu smartly finds Rieko with open pastures ahead. Waratahs winger Cameron Clarke does a fantastic job of chasing down Ioane, pulling him down a few metres short. Ioane gets up and goes again but referee Jaco Piper rules the tackle completed.

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With an unmarked Caleb Clarke on the outside, Ioane misses a sure try by not passing but taking a ‘glass half full’ approach, the Blues just escaped from their own five and put the Waratahs deep on their own line. Think of it as a 90-metre exit play.

9. The spoils of playing with SBW

The headline midfield of Sonny Bill Williams and Rieko Ioane was possibly the top reason to tune into Blues games this year. The best offloader in the game and the number one speedster in the game, this combination should have been opening up teams all year. With Ioane’s positional musical chairs and Williams injury problems, the two only started twice together in the midfield.

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One this occasion against the Crusaders, Ioane shows a glimpse of what this combination could look like by coming off his wing to finish off the break by Williams. With the speed to catch any teammate, Ioane could make a decent living by just playing support lines off Williams. Hopefully, there is more of this in 2019.

8. Fa’auli gets Shake’n’baked

There is no better example of the explosiveness of Ioane’s left step than this right-left combo on Johnny Fa’auli.

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Ioane fakes to the outside and cuts hard off the left foot to beat Fa’auli on the inside. He breaks the sliding tackle from the next inside defender and races away downfield, beating Fa’auli’s second attempt before being brought down in a great cover tackle by Damian McKenzie.

The Blues aren’t able to capitalise on the break and end up losing 27-21 in a tight match but this big play by Ioane showed the kind of game-breaking potential he has in the midfield, using footwork to create his own space.

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7. Show and go vs Samu Kerevi

In the Blues last home game against the Reds in Round 16, Ioane scores by breezing through some passive Reds defence in a send-off win for franchise hero Jerome Kaino.

After halback Sam Nock takes a quick tap he quickly feeds Ioane, who is in open space. He looks to draw Kerevi into contact and send his outside man away but Kerevi plays off for too long.

Ioane dummies and goes inside, breaking through a pretty poor arm tackle by Jono Lance to cruise over for five points.

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6. See ya Jordie

Despite being at sixes and sevens on defence against Ngani Laumape, Ioane got a couple back against the Hurricanes in Round 18, scoring a double himself. This foot race with fullback Jordie Barrett showed off Ioane’s supreme pace.

The makeshift midfielder finds a nice hole opening after some smart work from Stephen Perofeta to create the gap. With an open lane ahead and Jordie too late to make the covering tackle, Ioane breaks through the Hurricanes defence to score in the corner.

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5. Ioane burns the Crusaders 

The youngest Ioane brother had arguably his best match of the season against the Crusaders at home in Round 14, where he resumed duties in the number 11 jersey. He finished the night with two tries, two try assists and four line breaks in a vintage performance against the defending champions.

His second assist of the night was one of his best of the year. He picks up a loose ball before breaking to the outside, stepping Mataele and leaving him on the ground. Stumbling just a little causes sweeping halfback Mitch Drummond to hesitate just as Ioane regains balance and hits the accelerator, leaving him in cement blocks.

With the fullback to beat, Ioane neatly passes inside to Michael Collins who finishes the opportunity by beating the cover tackle of Mo’unga.

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4. More midfield mayhem

With the clock winding down against the Crusaders, Ioane has one last magic moment to inspire his team.

Deep in his own half, Ioane shakes the rush defence of Richie Mo’unga and proceeds to run past no less than five Crusaders on a rampant downfield break. If not for a last-ditch tackle by David Havili, this may have been the try of the season.

Again, Ioane rips through the line whilst playing the closing stages of the match at centre. Unfortunately for the Blues, no support players are able to keep up with him. He has an arm free to offload in the low tackle but the nearest teammate is 10 metres behind him.

3. Ioane’s first try of the year in Jo’burg

Early in the season, the Blues pulled off a miraculous 38-35 victory over South Africa’s best team, the Lions.

They managed to come back from a two-try deficit twice, and both the Ioane brothers were a huge reason why. In the first rally, Ioane combined with SBW to score his first try of the season.

Williams shapes to attack the line but is able to link with Ioane, putting him on the outside of his man with a perfectly weighted pass. Ioane does what Ioane does best, quickly hitting top speed and cutting back past multiple Lions defenders to score next to the posts.

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2. Ioane leaves Tamanivalu in the dust

The first assist Ioane had against the Crusaders ranks better than the second, coming in at number two.

This piece of speed and skill was one of Ioane’s best moments of the year. Scooping up a wild flick pass by prop Ofa Tu’ungafasi on halfway, he puts on the afterburners and leaves Seta Tamanivalu at the altar. He seems to run by him with ease, despite the Crusaders winger coming across in stride.

Ioane tries to do the same to Havili in a tight corridor, but the Crusaders fullback is up to the task. Whilst being dragged over the sideline, he is able to fling the ball back inside to Matt Duffy looming in support to finish a great try.

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1. Leaving the Highlanders high and dry

Rieko Ioane’s top Super Rugby play of 2018 came way back in the opening round, combining with a number of his teammates to come up with this beautifully constructed try.

After cleaning up the clearing kick, Ioane quickly reloads on the short side for a raid.

Pulu skips past him to the edge where a brilliant Sonny Bill offload frees Duffie down the sideline. His pass is bettered by an even better back-hand flick by Ioane in a 1-2 combo that leaves the Highlanders caught short down the tramlines, where Duffie jogs the rest of the way to score.

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Jon 5 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”?

35 Go to comments
j
john 8 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.

30 Go to comments
A
Adrian 10 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks 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

30 Go to comments
T
Trevor 12 hours ago
Will forgotten Wallabies fit the Joe Schmidt model?

Thanks Brett.. At last a positive article on the potential of Wallaby candidates, great to read. Schmidt’s record as an international rugby coach speaks for itself, I’m somewhat confident he will turn the Wallaby’s fortunes around …. on the field. It will be up to others to steady the ship off the paddock. But is there a flaw in my optimism? We have known all along that Australia has the players to be very competitive with their international rivals. We know that because everyone keeps telling us. So why the poor results? A question that requires a definitive answer before the turn around can occur. Joe Schmidt signed on for 2 years, time to encompass the Lions tour of 2025. By all accounts he puts family first and that’s fair enough, but I would wager that his 2 year contract will be extended if the next 18 months or so shows the statement “Australia has the players” proves to be correct. The new coach does not have a lot of time to meld together an outfit that will be competitive in the Rugby Championship - it will be interesting to see what happens. It will be interesting to see what happens with Giteau law, the new Wallaby coach has already verbalised that he would to prefer to select from those who play their rugby in Australia. His first test in charge is in July just over 3 months away .. not a long time. I for one wish him well .. heaven knows Australia needs some positive vibes.

21 Go to comments
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