Blues survive late red card to beat Matatū in wild Super Rugby Aupiki final
Saturday, 12 April 2025
At Eden Park, Auckland: Blues 26 (Ruahei Demant 22’, Chryss Viliko 25’, Portia Woodman-Wickliffe 60’, Braxton Sorensen-McGee 70’ tries; Krysten Cottrell 2, Demant con) Matatū 19 (Winnie Palamo 6’, Amy du Plessis 18’, Kaipo Olsen-Baker 53’ tries; Hannah King 2 con). HT: 14-12.
The Blues survived a late red card to regain the Super Rugby Aupiki title in a wild, chaotic final against Matatū on Saturday night.
Veteran lock Eloise Blackwell was sent off for a nasty head clash in a tackle on Matatū No 10 Hannah King. The South Island team had also lost Georgia Ponsonby to a yellow card in a crazy final quarter.
Blues fullback Braxton Sorensen-McGee then sprinted more than 60 metres for a sensational intercept try to clinch back-to-back titles for Willie Walker’s team, beating the 2023 champions 26-19 at Eden Park.
Walker said he was relieved after watching the Blues cling to the Aupiki trophy.
“On the flip side, I'm just really proud of our group, to keep on fighting, and that's what we talked about, staying together, staying tight,” Walker said.
Captain Maia Roos said she had “goosebumps” thinking about the game’s big moments that went their way.
“Every time we had a break, we just said we need to win the next moment. We did that effectively. We had girls step up,” Roos said.
The decider was littered with mistakes and wracked with nerves, but it was not short of excitement.
Matatū kept coming but could not breach the Blues, who had 14 players for the final seconds after Blackwell’s dismissal but heroically withstood a relentless onslaught, holding up Matatū over their own line.
Whitney Hansen’s players were left devastated in Auckland after not forcing extra-time with a converted try.
“I’m 100% proud of us today. It's always hard when the outcome doesn't go your way, in a big game like that when you only get one chance, but the effort of our girls was pretty special,” Hansen said.
“It just speaks massively to the character of the human beings we have in our squad.”
How fitting, though, that Blues centre and Black Ferns legend Portia Woodman-Wickliffe swooped on a loose pass to finally bring an end to a maddening conclusion.
“I was a bit frustrated she didn't kick it straight out,” Walker said. “But that was all right.”
In what could be her final professional rugby game in New Zealand, Woodman-Wickliffe was effective in their ambitious attacks. As for defence, her tackling was shuddering in a player-of-the-match performance.
Inevitably, a combination with the Blues’ talismanic Ruahei Demant led to Woodman-Wickliffe’s try in a spell of high drama.
Moments later, Matatū hooker Ponsonby was sinbinned for crashing her head into Blues loose forward Taufa Bason.
Ponsonby was more unlucky than Blackwell, whose challenge was reckless and left her side scrambling for their lives. She had only just come off the bench, swiftly walking off.
Sorensen-McGee showed great speed and poise for the decisive try, although it was the Blues’ defence that sealed a similarly dramatic final victory after narrowly defeating the Chiefs in last year’s decider at Eden Park.
The crowd had thinned out considerably from the earlier men’s game between the Blues and Moana Pasifika, but there was enough enthusiasm and tension to lift the occasion.
Matatū had a blowtorch on the Blues’ line to start the second half, with the final in the balance. The visitors regained the lead as impressive No 8 Kaipo Olsen-Baker wriggled over.
They kept it simple, crashing into carry after carry. It was a clash of styles because the Blues were intent on keeping the ball alive and looked capable of striking at a moment’s notice.
Matatū’s strength was through their pack, laced with Black Ferns such as Bremner sisters Alana and Chelsea, Ponsonby and Olsen-Baker, who was superb at claiming turnovers. Blues lock Roos was also excellent in leading their forwards.
It was their slight outside backs, Sorensen-McGee and Jaymie Kolose, making breaks to trouble Matatū and blow the game open.
Demant’s switch inside from No 12 to first five-eighth straightened their attack. It was her pass that gave Woodman-Wickliffe an easy finish before the frantic final stages.
The Blues needed an early wake-up call. Matatū dominated the collisions to camp inside the hosts’ 22 and built pressure for Winnie Palamo and Amy du Plessis to cross in a one-sided opening quarter.
Black Ferns lock Chelsea Bremner, returning from injury, made a brutal carry to lead her pack forward. The Blues appeared to have no answer.
However, the visitors couldn’t maintain their control. King’s slack kicking (not finding touch from a penalty before not kicking a restart 10 metres) allowed the Blues some reprieve.
The first chance Woodman-Wickliffe got to stretch her legs, a trademark fend on Grace Brooker and surge gave Demant the simplest try. Suddenly, the Blues were alive.
Prop Chryss Viliko showed the best of her power game by dragging Matatū’s defence with her for a score that ensured the Blues shaded the first half. The momentum was theirs.
However, neither team established any control in the second stanza in a decider that could have gone either way.
The big picture
Super Rugby Aupiki was launched in 2022 to give women’s rugby an elite domestic competition in New Zealand.
The four-team format, with many players still part-time, has widely been derided as unsustainable from the outset.
There has always been chatter about combining the Kiwi competition with Australia’s. Whether that happens, and in what form, remains to be seen.
What’s next
The show goes on for the Blues. The Kiwi champions will host the Waratahs, who beat the Reds 43-21 in Australia’s Super Rugby final, in a crossover clash next Thursday night at North Harbour Stadium.
The Black Ferns will also name their first squad in a World Cup year before the month is out.