Chiefs hold off Blues’ push to win
AUCKLAND: A severely understrength Chiefs secured one of their greatest Super Rugby results, surviving raid after raid from a fastfinishing Blues to win last night’s clash 2721 in Auckland.
Missing All Blacks Brodie Retallick, Charlie Ngatai, Kane Hames and Dominic Bird to injury, the Chiefs were down to the bare bones. But sheer grit, some poor Blues finishing and a captain’s knock by Sam Cane allowed the Chiefs to limp over the line.
Blues centre George Moala wasted a good chance to score as the seconds ticked away, before a late penalty was squandered by a poor rolling maul.
Handed another late opportunity by the Chiefs’ failure to kick the ball out, the Blues skewered a lastgasp lineout to condemn themselves to defeat. They remain winless on the bottom of the Kiwi conference.
In a frenetic opening stanza, both sides took it to the other but frequently came up short with errors and poor decisionmaking.
Skipper Augustine Pulu went over off the back of some solid Blues mauling work in the seventh minute, before the Chiefs’ Sean Wainui responded five minutes later.
Titfortat tryscoring followed 10 minutes on, when a fleetfooted Akira Ioane crossed and Wainui followed by bagging his second.
In the second half, the Blues began their typical collapse. A driving maul sent Cane over in the 47th minute, before Brad Weber collected a stray Blues offload to dash 40m and score.
Blues playmaker Bryn Gatland pulled one back, but in vain.
‘‘We had some young guys come out there today, some of them pulling on the jersey for the first time, first year, and they really just stepped up,’’ Cane said.
Worryingly, Chiefs prop Nepo Laulala went off with an apparent serious arm injury.