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Fourteen-man Blues hang on

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 10:23

Celebration time: The Blues are happy with their win in Dunedin

The Blues, despite being reduced to 14 men in the final minutes of the game, managed to hold on for a nail-biting 19-14 win over the Highlanders in their Super 14 Round Two match at Carisbrook, Dunedin, on Friday.

What a wonderful match! It was full of life and derring-do. It had drama - on attack and even more so on defence - and it had a close score. It was a match which the Highlanders could have won, but for missed tackles and missed kicks.

Much of the credit for the sheer joy of the match must go to the players who were mostly compliant at tackle time and to the referee that insisted that they were compliant and punished them if the were not. There were two yellow cards, both for tackle infringements, and off Josh Bekhuis and Rene Ranger went to the sin bin late in the match. There were 16 penalties in the match, 10 at the tackle.

The scrums were, by and large tidy, with five resets in 25 scrums, and some of the scrums were tense ad the Highlanders twice put the ball in five metres from their own line and the Blues three times five metres from the Highlanders' line - five crunch scrums.

The crowd was under 7 000 - lots of empty places at Carisbrook, made even thinner because the students are not yet back. The match deserved more people.

The Blues played mainly in white so as not to clash with the mainly blue Highlanders and they kicked off with a good wind behind them which abated somewhat as the match went on.

From the start both sides ran and then the Blues ran in counterattack from near touch when Jimmy Cowan's kick was not allowed to go out and Paul Williams stared the attack.  He ended it as well as the Blues went left and then far right and the big fullback stepped down the right touch-line, bumping off James Paterson and then powering past Israel Dagg to score in the corner. Stephen Brett converted brilliantly. 7-0 after 9 minutes.

Then the Highlanders scored a brilliant try. Unlike the Blues, their line-out worked well even with deep throws in the wind. They threw deep, Cowan did a little sideways run and then suddenly Paterson, off his left wing, cut through and gave to Israel Dagg who scored in the right corner with Ben Smith available outside of him. 7-5 after 12 minutes.

The Highlanders won a turnover with some good work by busy Jason Rutledge and Jimmy Cowan kicked a rolling kick out at the corner. The Blues were having lots of trouble at the line-outs and this one was also a mess. It bobbled back to Tony Woodcock who knocked it forward near his line. Next thing the Highlanders were going right and Michael Hobbs sped past Benson Stanley and over for a try as Brett tries to stop him. He converted. 12-7 to the Highlanders, which was the half-time score and the Highlanders had the wind in the second half.

Into the wind the Highlanders scored two tries to one; into the wind the Blues scored two tries to none. The wind cannot win by itself!

The Highlanders were first to attack as Hobbs chipped, caught and gave to Cowan. Johan Afoa was penalised but Hobbs missed the simple kick at goal. Then it was the Blues turn and in five minutes they won the match.

It started unpromisingly as Williams tried a clearing kick and Smith got close - close enough to make contact with the ball, but the perverse oval flew back a long way towards the Highlanders  where Afoa snatched it up. The burly prop raced more than 20 metres down the ,middle of the field. The Blues went left and Williams raced over. Brett converted. 14-12 to the Blues.

They went further ahead. again Williams started it, this time with a strong counterattack. It went to Rudi Wulf on the left wing. He kicked infield off his right boot and Israel Dagg saved, but in doing so he carried over. From the five-metre scrum the Blues bashed and then went wide right where Ranger powered over for a try. 19-12 after 55 minutes.

Hobbs broke and Kurtis Haiu was penalised right in front of his posts. Dagg kicked the easy goal. 19-15. A promising end was in sight and there was lots of drama and effort but no change to the scoreboard.

Part of the drama was a period of some 10 minutes when the Blues bashed at the Highlanders' line - right up against it. They turned down two penalties in favour of scrums. It started from a quick scrum and a dart by Albie Mathewson. That took them to the line where Bekhuis was penalised and sin-binned. The Blues opted for a scrum - 8 against 7 - or 7 and a small back.

The Blues bashed again and the Highlanders were penalised again. again they opted for a scrum and again they bashed with Stanley and Kaino close but then the Highlanders won a turnover and then a defensive scrum and then Jason Shoemark cleared.

It was heroic defence by the Highlanders.

The Highlanders ran at the Blues who lost Ranger but they did not lose their composure and determination, and in the end that was enough to win the Gordon Hunter Memorial Trophy for the fourth successive year.

Man of the Match: Jerome Kaino had a big match and Joe Rokocoko was back and running even if only occasionally. Paul Williams had a hand in all three of his side's try even though the third was an unwitting cause. But for us the man of the match was 22-year-old Michael Hobbs whose post-school career has included the Queensland Reds, Welling ton and the Blues before finding his way to the deep south. He was brilliant. He ran so well and judiciously, passed with accuracy and kicked well with both feet, long and short. It was only his kicking at goal which was not great. Like Stephen Brett he missed to penalty kicks at goal.

The scorers:

For the Highlanders:
Tries: Dagg, Hobbs
Con: Hobbs
Pen: Dagg

For the Blues:
Tries: Williams 2, Ranger
Cons: Brett 2

Yellow cards: Josh Bekhuis (Highlanders, 64 - repeated infringements at the breakdown), Rene Ranger (Blues, 77 - repeated infringements at the breakdown)

Teams:

Highlanders: 15 Israel Dagg, 14 Ben Smith, 13 Jason Shoemark, 12 Jayden Hayward, 11 James Paterson, 10 Michael Hobbs, 9 Jimmy Cowan (captain), 8 Steven Setephano, 7 Alando Soakai, 6 Adam Thomson, 5 Tom Donnelly, 4 Josh Bekhuis, 3 Clint Newland, 2 Jason Rutledge, 1 Jamie Mackintosh.
Replacements: 16 Jason Macdonald, 17 Chris King, 18 Hayden Triggs, 19 John Hardie, 20 Sean Romans, 21 Robbie Robinson, 22 Fetu'u Vainikolo.

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

Referee: Bryce Lawrence (New Zealand)
Assistant referees: Garratt Williamson (New Zealand), Kane McBride (New Zealand)
TMO: Josh Noonan (New Zealand)

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