Blues repel Brumbies fightback to reach Super Rugby Pacific final
Friday, 14 June 2024
The Blues will play the Hurricanes or the Chiefs in next Saturday’s Super Rugby Pacific final.
Vern Cotter’s team repelled the Brumbies’ fightback to win 34-20 in Friday night’s semifinal at Eden Park.
The Blues scored four tries in the opening quarter and are chasing their first major title since 2003.
At Eden Park, Auckland: Blues 34 (AJ Lam 2’, Ricky Riccitelli 8’, Sam Darry 14’, Caleb Clarke 21’, Hoskins Sotutu 59’ tries; Harry Plummer 3 con, pen) Brumbies 20 (Rob Valetini 36’, Luke Reimer 68’ tries; Noah Lolesio 2 pen, 2 con). HT: 27-13. Yellow card: Nick Frost (Brumbies).
Vern Cotter’s Blues will get the ultimate chance to banish the pain from a catalogue of failures in next weekend’s Super Rugby Pacific decider.
For so long the Blues have had great talent but fallen short of the top prize, which has eluded them since 2003, but they are through to their second final in three years after beating the Brumbies 34-20 in Friday night’s semifinal at Eden Park.
The prospect of an upset, and an Australian team’s first win in a play-off match on New Zealand soil since Super Rugby began in 1996, never looked likely as the Blues won the collision battle in Auckland.
It wasn’t a breeze as the Brumbies, the leading Australian side, fought back after a poor start, although their hopes disappeared when lock Nick Frost was sinbinned for tackling Caleb Clarke in the air in the final minutes.
Harry Plummer continued to shine as the Blues’ No 10, kicking a 50/22, a testing long-range penalty and led them with authority on the big stage.
Loose forward Akira Ioane got through 54 minutes of work despite his calf injury scare and looked strong as the Blues pack largely controlled the arm wrestle to ensure it will be an all-Kiwi decider next Saturday.
Blues coach Vern Cotter said post-match that picking who to face, the Hurricanes or the Chiefs, who contest the second semifinal, was like “choosing between the plague or cholera”.
Ricky Riccitelli was excellent at hooker and captain Dalton Papali’i, who made a try-saving tackle on Corey Toole, was solid again. With skipper Patrick Tuipulotu (knee) gone for the season, lock Sam Darry also had an effective game on his comeback.
Papali’i failed a head injury assessment in the second half but confirmed post-match he had only suffered a knock to the mouth and should be available for the final.
The Brumbies did everything they could to beat the Blues at their own game. Playmaker Noah Lolesio tried to force the hosts into mistakes with high kicks and there were jitters around Eden Park for a long spell after half-time when the Aussies were on the attack.
When the Blues’ stoic defence survived, the Brumbies had failed to seize an opportunity when they also looked threatening out wide.
The life was drained from them when in-form No 8 Hoskins Sotutu pounced on a loose ball by the posts to give the Blues a buffer of three converted tries for the final quarter.
Luke Reimer pulled one back for the Brumbies, but their streak of seven victories was finished one hurdle short of the game that mattered.
The occasion felt flat for a semifinal, another sign that Kiwi rugby fans aren’t interested in watching Australian teams. There must have been no more than 20,000 dotted around Eden Park.
It was indeed stale. The home crowd struggled to stir, even as the Blues scored four tries in the first quarter to build a commanding lead. The Brumbies might have wished for more of the day’s earlier torrential rain to level the playing field.
They had an uphill task when Plummer regained the kick-off. The Blues went through about 20 phases for AJ Lam to open the scoring. The visitors didn’t touch the ball.
Another restart led to Darry’s try in between Riccitelli and Clarke’s efforts from a rolling maul and a scrum respectively.
The Blues were here to smash through their Australian opponents and reverted to their playbook: pick up, carry and clean out to slowly punch holes in the Brumbies’ defence.
There was another drop-off from the Blues before the break, however, and Rob Valetini squeezed over.
Lolesio’s two penalty goals kept the visitors in touch after a half in which they had been dominated, made soft errors and struggled to repel the Blues’ barrage of carries.
The big picture
The Blues have beaten the Fijian Drua and the Brumbies at home to reach their second final in the third season of Super Rugby Pacific.
The Brumbies knocked over the Highlanders in Canberra in last weekend’s quarterfinals, but their campaign is over. It’s the third year in a row they have lost away to a Kiwi team in the semifinals.
In fact, their defeat was the 18th from 18 attempts suffered by Australian teams when contesting a Super Rugby play-off match in New Zealand.
What’s next
The Hurricanes and the Chiefs meet in their Wellington semifinal on Saturday afternoon.
If the Hurricanes win, the Blues are heading to the capital for next Saturday’s final. If the Chiefs triumph, Cotter’s men will host the decider at Eden Park.