Aces crush Firebirds’ playoff hopes
The Wellington Firebirds missed out on the Super Smash playoffs after a disappointing loss to the Auckland Aces, despite the best efforts of Logan van Beek.
Set 120 to win off 18 overs following a rain delay, the Firebirds’ run chase never really got going in difficult batting conditions in Wellington yesterday.
Black Caps star Kyle Jamieson, wily spinner Adithya Ashok and Louis Delport combined in a disciplined bowling and fielding display to dismiss the Firebirds for 110, depriving them of the win they needed to stay in the playoffs race.
Jamieson started his spell on fire. After three dot balls in the opening over he caught out Tom Blundell with his extra bounce, and Robbie O’Donnell took the easy catch.
The Aces did not waste that good start, and their sharpness in the field was emphasised when Cole Briggs took a fine diving catch to dismiss Rachin Ravindra.
Earlier, Robbie O’Donnell and Sean Solia combined for the Aces’ crucial batting partnership. The middle-order batsmen scored at more than a run a ball after the early rain delay and the loss of the Aces’ first three wickets.
They started their partnership when the Aces were struggling at 20-3, but they built a game-defining score before Solia was caught in the deep for 28 to leave the Aces 77-4.
Ben Horne departed soon afterwards for a single run, bringing Jamieson to the crease.
However, the impressive van Beek made sure Jamieson’s stay was short and sweet, and when he was caught by Troy Johnson for just three runs the Aces were reduced to 88-6.
However, the tail wagged. In tough batting conditions, the Aces progressed to 119-8 in their rain-shortened 18 overs. It did not look like an imposing total, but under dark clouds Jamieson, Ashok and Delport put it out of reach for the Firebirds.
❏ A superb bowling performance by Josie Penfold kept the Auckland Hearts in the playoff race with a 44-run victory against the previously unbeaten Wellington Blaze yesterday.
The Hearts set the home side a modest-looking total of 131 but disciplined bowling and some sharp fielding got them home with plenty to spare.
The Aucklanders must now hope that the Otago Sparks lose heavily to the Canterbury Magicians in Dunedin today to sneak into the final playoffs berth.
The odds therefore remain stacked against them but they can at least take satisfaction from the impressive victory against the Blaze.
Blaze power hitter Rebecca Burns was the key wicket to fall after her 35 runs off 36 balls threatened to swing the game in the favour of the home side.
Holly Huddlestone then dismissed Laura Harris and the Blaze collapsed from that point as Penfold cleaned up the tail.
Reggie Goodes knows what to say when friends ask if he’s worried whether the concussions that ruined his professional rugby career will return to haunt him.
No, he’s not. Goodes can’t see the point in dwelling on it. He wants to make the most of life, not fret about what may, or may not, happen later.
Goodes, a loosehead prop who made 60 Super Rugby appearances for the Hurricanes between 2012 and 2016 and also played 45 games for Wellington, had to retire from the sport when he was just 26.
For a front rower, that’s young. Yet, Goodes knew he had to do what was right.
Once that decision was made, he elected to squeeze the best out of what the world had to offer, not look in the rearview mirror and get worked up about the negatives.
When two medical specialists said he should walk away from rugby in early 2018, he made the decision to tell his Hurricanes teammates he was finished.
Goodes’ first concussion happened in his 50th match for the Hurricanes, against the Blues in 2016; an opponent tried to leap over him and accidentally clipped his head, forcing him to sit out the next two games.
In the final round-robin game later that season, against the Crusaders in Christchurch, he took a pass from team-mate Beauden Barrett and ran smack-bang into the hip of opposition prop Owen Franks.
That concussion sidelined him for three months. Goodes had to sit and watch the Hurricanes sweep through the playoffs unbeaten, as they won their first title.
Having to rest in the stands, as his team-mates beat the Lions in the Super Rugby final in Wellington, stung. Everyone at the Hurricanes tried to make him feel like he was a part of the machine, but he was still on the outside looking in: ‘‘That was probably the toughest thing.’’
Three months later Goodes returned for Wellington, but another head knock, this time in a Hurricanes pre-season game at the start of 2017, forced him to rest for all of that year.
‘‘I had a year of trying to get rid of symptoms, and trying to get back. But I kind of knew in my head, ‘this could be it’,’’ Goodes says.
‘‘Yes, it was tough. I grew up in South Africa, which was rugby mad and was then a New Zealand supporter. You play rugby at school, but you always work hard because of the opportunity to be professional in your teens and 20s.
‘‘And obviously I had to stop. That is the tough bit about it. But, at the same time, everyone has got an expiry date in rugby. Mine just came a bit earlier, which gave me the opportunity to do things while I am still young.’’
During his enforced lay-off, he started a degree in business studies, did volunteer community work and found a part-time job.
Goodes was grateful that his Hurricanes coach, Chris Boyd, didn’t pressure him. Boyd told the front rower to take all the time he wanted to recover, and to ensure he remained in excellent physical condition.
Yet it counted for nothing. He had to let go.
Unlike some ex-rugby and rugby league players, Goodes isn’t plagued by the symptoms that forced him to