Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

Blues outgun Highlanders to advance to Super Rugby Pacific semi-finals

(Photo by Fiona Goodall/Getty Images)

Former NRL superstar Roger Tuivasa-Sheck scored his first Super Rugby Pacific try as the Blues cruised through to the semi-finals with a 35-6 win against the Highlanders at Eden Park.

ADVERTISEMENT

The 2018 Dally M medallist was in sparkling touch and continued to push his case for All Blacks selection, creating a try for Beauden Barrett on 48 minutes before slashing through for his own on 69 minutes.

Despite losing hooker Andrew Makalio to a red card for a no-arms tackle in the 22nd minute, the Highlanders managed to keep the Blues at bay for the first half an hour of the contest, taking a 6-0 lead through two Marty Banks penalties.

Video Spacer

Aotearoa Rugby Pod | Episode 16

Video Spacer

Aotearoa Rugby Pod | Episode 16

Flanker Akira Ioane stormed over the line to get the Blues on the scoreboard in the 31st minute and soon afterwards a bit of magic from All Blacks flyhalf Barrett for a second converted try had the home side 14-6 ahead.

Barrett scored his second eight minutes into the second half after slick play from Tuivasa-Sheck and replacement winger AJ Lam.

Tuivasa-Sheck then used his blistering pace to cross as the Highlanders ran out of gas.

“You can never get comfortable against the ‘Landers, they are a side that always fights for the full 80 (minutes),” captain Barrett told Stan Sport.

“We took a bit of time to find our groove … but it’s great that we finally expressed ourselves and got used to playing our game again.”

ADVERTISEMENT

The Blues’ semi-final is set for next Saturday night at Eden Park.

Blues 35 (Tries to Akira Ioane, Beauden Barrett (2), AJ Lam and Roger Tuivasa-Sheck; 5 conversions to Stephen Perofeta)

Highlanders 6 (2 penalties to Marty Banks)

ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

B
Bull Shark 3 hours ago
Rassie Erasmus' Boks selection policy is becoming bizarre

To be fair, the only thing that drives engagement on this site is over the top critiques of Southern Hemisphere teams.


Or articles about people on podcasts criticizing southern hemisphere teams.


Articles regarding the Northern Hemisphere tend to be more positive than critical. I guess to also rile up kiwis and Saffers who seem to be the majority of followers in the comments section. There seems to be a whole department dedicated to Ireland’s world ranking news.


Despite being dialled into the Northern edition - I know sweet fokall about what’s going on in France.


And even less than fokall about what’s cutting in Japan - which has a fast growing, increasingly premium League competition emerging.


And let’s not talk about the pacific. Do they even play rugby Down there.


Oh and the Americas. I’ve read more articles about a young, stargazing Welshman’s foray into NFL than I have anything related to either the north and south continents of the Americas.


I will give credit that the women’s game is getting decent airtime. But for the rest and the above; it’s just pathetic coming from a World Rugby website.


Just consider the innovation emerging in Japan with the pedigree of coaches over there.


There’s so much good we could be reading.


Instead it’s unimaginative “critical for the sake of feigning controversial”. Which is lazy, because in order to pull that off all you need to be really good at is:


1. Being a doos;

2. Having an opinion.


No prior experience needed.


Which is not journalism. That’s like all or most of us in the comments section. People like Finn (who I believe is a RP contributor).


Anyway. Hopefully it will get better. The game is growing and the interest in the game is growing. Maybe it will attract more qualified journalists over time.

18 Go to comments
TRENDING
TRENDING Joe Marler wasn't wrong to take a pop at the All Blacks' haka Joe Marler wasn't wrong to take a pop at the All Blacks' haka
Search