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Blues burst the Reds' bubble

Sat, 27 Feb 2010 12:38

Celebration time: The Blues are happy with another win

The Blues brought the Reds back to earth with a bang, recording a bonus-point 27-18 win in their Super 14 showdown at Ballymore on Saturday.

The loss will be a bitter pill to swallow for the Reds, who showed so much promise in beating the Crusaders last week. However, this week much of what has been wrong with the team in past seasons again cropped up - a team only playing a patches and showing moments of magic, but lack consistency.

The Reds' high error count also cost them dearly, especially in the last quarter when they tried to launch a big comeback after conceding their first-half lead.

Stand-in captain Will Genia spoke of "crucial mistakes" and "a harsh lesson". Only time will tell if those were lessons taken to heart.

Blues captain Kevin Mealamu admitted that his team did not have a good start to the game, but added that "patience" for 80 minutes is what paid off for his team.

The last 20 minutes were the most exciting of the game - action-packed and energy sapping, even though the execution and skills levels at times left a lot to be desired.

The conditions contributed to a drab first hour, as it was raining proverbial cats and dogs - rain that intensified after the break.

The Reds were certainly not as clinical as they were last week, with the halfback heroes - Will Genia and Quade Cooper - unable to stamp their authority on the game as they did against the Crusaders.

The Blues' pack took control in very testing conditions and the Reds eventually lifted their intensity going into the final quarter - after the Blues had taken a seven-point lead - 20-13. But it was a classic case of too little, too late as the Reds managed to hold on for a vital win.

The Reds got off to a flyer, with Will Genia collecting the ball as an attempted grubber by Stephen Brett bounced off a Reds defender and Genia showed masterful skill to scoop the ball from the ground. The Reds scrumhalf simply had too much pace for the chasers. Quade Cooper added the conversion for a 7-0 lead in just under three minutes.

Genia went from hero to villain in the 10th minute, as he got caught behind a scrum and conceded a penalty for holding on in the tackle. However, Brett's poor kicking form continued as he hooked it wide of the uprights.

Quade Cooper had a shot at goal in the 15th minute, when Peter Saili was penalised for not rolling away in the tackle and the Reds flyhalf stretched the lead to 10-0.

Three minutes later Reds tighthead prop Laurie Weeks was penalised for not making enough of an effort to roll away at the tackle and this time Brett had no problems to get the Blue on the scoreboard - 3-10.

Genia, such a star last week, made another enormous error that resulted in a Blues try. He cleared from just inside his 22, but his kick went goal-in-touch and the Blues had a scrum 75 metres downfield. The Blues launched a blistering attack to the left and Rene Ranger wriggled his way through four would-be tacklers - including Genia - to score his team's first try. Brett couldn't add the extras, but at 8-10 and 34 minutes gone on the clock the visitors were in the game.

The Reds produced a destructive scrum soon afterwards and as the Blues scrambled to protect their ball they conceded a penalty. Cooper stretched the lead to five points with the penalty - 13-8.

And when former Blues flank Daniel Braid - now in Reds colours - was penalised at a breakdown, Brett had a shot at pulling three points back just before the break. However, he hooker it left again and the Reds took that five-point (13-8) lead into half-time.

The Blues got back on level terms very quickly after the break - taking the ball through numerous phases, launching wave-after-wave of raids with the forwards and Anthony Boric burrowing his way over for the second try. This time Brett added the extras and the Blues had the lead for the first time four minutes into the second half.

And the Reds were feeling the 'heat', so to speak, with Peter Hynes leaving the field with a wrist injury and Rod Davies for treatment to a facial cut after being head-butted by teammate Daniel Braid.

The next score was stupefying in its simplicity. Blues scrumhalf Alby Mathewson, off the back of a line-out, threw a dummy and then raced over unopposed for the visitors' third try. Brett again hooked it wide to the left, but at 20-13 the Reds were under pressure and their game not working.

Brett, who struggled with his goal-kicking but controlled the game with some deft out of hand kicking, put the Reds back under pressure with a pin-point touch-finder. However, the men from Auckland continued to struggle with their ball control and wasted a golden opportunity.

It was now the turn of Genia and Cooper to raise the bar and play the percentages, something they had not done in the first hour.

The game then took a bizarre turn when Australian touch judge Stephen Hill brought the game back 80 metres into the Blues 22, from just short of the Reds tryline, for a foul play incident in which he struggled to remember both the sequence of events and the numbers of the players.

However, from the resulting line-out prop Laurie Weeks , sitting at the back of a maul, went over for the Reds' second try. Cooper couldn't add the extras, but at 18-20 the Reds were back in the game and with 15 minutes left on the clock.

A penalty soon afterwards, as All Black Tony Woodcock slowed the ball down at the tackle, gave Cooper a chance to put the home team back in front. However, he pushed it just wide of the upright.

It was now the turn of the Blues to push hard, as a Genia kick was charged down, with the Reds' cover scrambled and managed to push Viliame Ma'afu into touch just metres out.

There was a mad scramble from both teams  going into the final 10 minutes.

With the Reds launching a desperate raid - through some nifty footwork by Cooper and Will Chambers - the ball was eventually grounded behind the Blues' line. But the TMO ruled that a Reds hand had knocked it forward first.

From the resulting scrum the Reds won a turnover as the noise levels at Ballymore raised considerably, but Genia knocked on as the Blues defenders applied plenty of pressure in the mad dash for the winning score. And Brett then found a good touch inside the Reds' half.

The Blues won a crucial turnover in a tackle and with swift hands it went to the left, where Rudi Wulf scored his second and the Blues' fourth try - a bonus point and a win secured with less than two minutes left on the clock. Lachie Munro took the conversion attempt and he made it a nine-point game - 27-18.

All that was left for the Reds was to chase a bonus point. The Blues, from the restart, controlled the ball and a minute later Brett hacked it into touch to secure a vital win.

Man of the match: The Reds only played for the last 20 minutes and not many players really put their hands up. The Blues pack, as a unit, deserves credit, but our award goes to Blues scrumhalf Alby Mathewson - who showed great option taking in the testing conditions and scored a crucial try just before the hour mark was up.

The scorers:

For the Reds:
Tries: Genia, Weeks
Con: Cooper
Pens: Cooper 2

For the Blues:
Tries: Ranger, Wulf, Boric, Mathewson
Cons: Brett, Munro
Pen: Brett

Teams:

Reds: 15 Peter Hynes, 14 Digby Ioane, 13 Morgan Turinui, 12 Anthony Faingaa, 11 Rod Davies, 10 Quade Cooper, 9 Will Genia (captain), 8 Scott Higginbotham, 7 Daniel Braid, 6 Jake Schatz, 5 Van Humphries, 4 Adam Byrnes, 3 Laurie Weeks, 2 Saia Faingaa, 1 Ben Daley.
Replacements: 16 Sean Hardman, 17 Greg Holmes, 18 Rob Simmons, 19 Leroy Houston, 20 Richard Kingi, 21 Tim Walsh, 22 Will Chambers.

Blues: 15 Paul Williams, 14 Joe Rokocoko, 13 Rene Ranger, 12 Benson Stanley, 11 Rudi Wulf, 10 Stephen Brett, 9 Alby Mathewson, 8 Peter Saili, 7 Serge Lilo, 6 Jerome Kaino, 5 Anthony Boric, 4 Kurtis Haiu, 3 Charlie Faumuina, 2 Keven Mealamu (captain), 1 John Afoa.
Replacements: 16 Tom McCartney, 17 Tony Woodcock, 18 Filo Paulo, 19 Viliami Ma'afu, 20 Chris Smylie, 21 Daniel Kirkpatrick, 22 Lachie Munro.

Referee: Steve Walsh (Australia)
Assistant referees: Paul Marks (Australia), Stephen Hill (Australia)
TMO: Steve Leszczynski (Australia)

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