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'Nearly lost another one': Relieved Blues lament second half slump

(Photo by Joe Allison/Getty Images)

When Highlanders fullback Sam Gilbert crashed over for his second try with ten minutes remaining, the home side drew within one score of the Blues at 32-25.

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With how the Blues have finished games this year, head coach Leon MacDonald admitted his heart rate was once again through the roof as his side tried to close out proceedings.

“Seems to be a theme for a lot of our games this year, [going] right down to the wire,” he told media in the post-match press conference.

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“Nearly lost another one in the dying stages again so pretty relieved when that final whistle blew. Great game of rugby, I thought. Both teams really tried to play with the ball
and having a bit of atmosphere and the crowd and under the roof, it’s a great place to play the game.”

The Blues built a 10-nil lead through an early Beauden Barrett penalty and a barnstorming try to left wing Caleb Clarke which became an 18-6 halftime lead when Barrett skinned the Highlanders down the shortside from a wayward scrum right before the break.

With Hoskins Sotutu under pressure, the ball bobbled backward but some smart work form Sam Nock rescued the situation and found his first five hanging out on the left wing where Highlanders wing Ngane Punivai was caught napping.

Head coach Leon MacDonald believed his side may have ‘got away with one’ as a knock-on could have been ruled at the base of the scrum but it was a key play in the context of the match.

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“There was a big call whether there was a knock on. We feel we got away with one [there]. Those little moments were big and then we had a couple go our way which
was nice,” he said.

“I thought we were able to nail a few key plays at key times – scoring before halftime. And losing Beauden, a little bit of experience at the end there, we just looked maybe a little bit rattled at the final stages.”

The Blues lost Barrett to concussion just minutes into the second half which forced Stephen Perofeta into the game early and the Highlanders were able to arrest momentum of the game.

Sam Gilbert sliced through from a well timed pass from Mitch Hunt to pull the home side into the game at 18-11 but an inability to exit gave the Blues possession straight back and they built pressure until Hoskins Sotutu broke through the line for an individual try.

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Down 25-11 the Highlanders didn’t give in, with another Mitch Hunt pass setting up a try for Dan Lienert-Brown pulling them within one score again following a Blues’ turnover in their own half.

Just moments later it looked like the Highlanders had a double strike when Mosese Dawai grabbed a fortunate bounce out of the clutches of Blues’ fullback Zarn Sullivan following a second box kick from Aaron Smith.

However the try was called back on review after replays showed Dawai had knocked on trying to bat back Aaron Smith’s first box kick which the Highlanders had recovered.

Leon MacDonald said his side ‘didn’t do a fantastic job’ of defending in the second half which let the Highlanders build pressure and score points. He said they lacked ‘zip’ in the second stanza.

“Yeah we didn’t have a lot of ball in the second half; we sort of spent a lot of time defending and we didn’t do a fantastic job of it either,” MacDonald lamented.

“I thought we defended really well in the first half but like I said, we just lacked a bit of zip in that second half. We were a bit slow and the Highlanders sniffed blood and they went for the kill and yeah, we wouldn’t have wanted to go into the 90th minute this week.”

 

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J
JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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