Northern Edition

Select Edition

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

Luatua red costs Blues as Chiefs ease to derby win

Blues flanker Steven Luatua

Steven Luatua was sent off on the stroke of half-time as Blues suffered a 11th successive derby defeat against Chiefs with a 41-26 Super Rugby loss at Waikato Stadium.

Blues were well in the contest at 15-9 down when flanker Luatua was given his marching orders for a dangerous off-the-ball high tackle on Tim Nanai-Williams, with Hika Elliot rubbing salt in the wounds by scoring moments later.

Tana Umaga’s men faced a big enough task with a full complement, so ending their dismal record against Chiefs was always going to be a big ask with 14 men and they slumped to a first loss of the season despite a valiant effort.

Chiefs followed up their impressive 25-14 defeat of Highlanders by running in three tries in each half, while man-of-the-match Aaron Cruden scored 11 points in his 100th Super Rugby game.

Three Ihaia West penalties put a Blues side, fresh from routing Rebels last week, 9-5 up 18 minutes in, but Damian McKenzie finished off a superb move to score Chiefs’ second try after Liam Messam crashed over early on.

Cruden converted and added a penalty before Luatua paid the price for taking out Nanai-Williams with a reckless tackle, which was soon followed by Elliot dotting down after the resulting penalty was kicked to the corner.

Chiefs had the game pretty much wrapped up within 10 minutes of the restart, with Lachlan Boshier and James Lowe going over, then Anton Lienert-Brown added another.

Patrick Tuipulotu, Charlie Faumuina and Rene Ranger came off the bench to score tries for a Blues side who made a real fist of it, but the damage had already been done.

ADVERTISEMENT
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

N
Nickers 15 minutes ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

I thought we made a lot of progress against that type of defence by the WC last year. Lots of direct running and punching holes rather than using width. Against that type of defence I think you have to be looking to kick on first phase when you have front foot ball which we did relatively successfully. We are playing a lot of rugby behind the gain line at the moment. They are looking for those little interchanges for soft shoulders and fast ball or off loads but it regularly turns into them battering away with slow ball and going backwards, then putting in a very rushed kick under huge pressure.


JB brought that dimension when he first moved into 12 a couple of years ago but he's definitely not been at his best this year. I don't know if it is because he is being asked to play a narrow role, or carrying a niggle or two, but he does not look confident to me. He had that clean break on the weekend and stood there like he was a prop who found himself in open space and didn't know what to do with the ball. He is still a good first phase ball carrier though, they use him a lot off the line out to set up fast clean ball, but I don't think anyone is particularly clear on what they are supposed to do at that point. He was used really successfully as a second playmaker last year but I don't think he's been at that role once this year. He is a triple threat player but playing a very 1 dimensional role at the moment. He and Reiko have been absolutely rock solid on defence which is why I don't think there will be too much experimentation or changes there.

41 Go to comments
TRENDING
TRENDING Rugby fugitive Rocky Elsom in hiding after fleeing Ireland Rugby fugitive Rocky Elsom in hiding after fleeing Ireland
Search