Blues heat up to blitz Highlanders

Blues heat up to blitz Highlanders

By MARC HINTON - RugbyHeaven | Thursday, 05 February 2009

http://www.rugbyheaven.co.nz/images/790351.jpg BEN WATSON/Suburban Newspapers
RUNNING HOT: Highlanders five-eighth Daniel Bowden takes it to the Blues in their pre-season match at Albany. The Blues won the match 45-34.


At halftime the Blues wondered what had hit them. In the second 40 they struck back with a bit of their own medicine to finish their final pre-Super 14 hitout against the Highlanders on a positive note.


Pat Lam's men completed preparations for their testing road trip to open the Super 14 with a 45-34 victory over the Highlanders in Albany on Thursday afternoon – an encounter that was not without its anxious moments for the home side.

Played in blazing hot conditions at North Harbour Stadium, the Blues, trailing by 15 at the break, produced a five-try second-half performance to run down a flagging Highlanders side in a high-scoring extravaganza.

The Blues leave on Sunday for Perth where they will open the new season before heading on to South Africa, and the nature of the second 40 minutes would probably have been enough to put a smile on coach Lam’s face. Certainly wipe off the scowl that was there at halftime.

The Highlanders showed plenty of promise in the first half, after which they led 27-12, four tries to two, but were unable to muster much in the way of resistance over the run home.

Asked how close to the "real thing" the match had been, new Blues skipper Keven Mealamu made it clear that the visitors had provided an ideal dress-rehearsal.
"That was pretty much it," said Mealamu on the day he re-signed with the NZRU through until 2011. "They're a good side the Highlanders, they really came at us hard in the first half.

"When we got back into the changing-room we just needed to take a deep breath, with all the pressure they were putting on we we forced into making some mistakes. In the second half we took a bit of control, used the wind a bit better and with field position were able to score a few more points."

Lam was a picture of contentment afterwards – at least until he started to discuss his injury-list which was strengthened after this match with a "stinger" to Joe – or Josevata as he prefers it these days – Rokocoko and a knock to the elbow of Anthony Tuitavake. Both are not considered serious.

"It was brilliant today," said Lam of the final shakedown under the blazing summer sun. "We came out and the players were probably saying 'oh, it's hot'. But for us as coaches and trainers it was fantastic. We couldn't have wanted it better. We'll take a lot of learning out of this and what we need to do as far as preparing for that heat."

The Blues snaffled a couple of well-taken five-pointers in the opening spell, Benson Stanley put away by the combined brilliance of Isaia Toeava and Tuitavake, and Rokocoko showing excellent strength to power through a head-on tackle in the left corner.

But other than those moments, and some sporadic individual brilliance from Tuitavake, it was pretty messy stuff from a Blues side still with plenty to do ahead of their tough road trip to open the new season.

The Highlanders competed well in the contact areas and rather made the most of their chances, three of their first-half touchdowns owing as much to opportunism as they did to withering execution.

New skipper Jimmy Cowan had the southerners’ first score, when he slid in under a Blues defender to snaffle Kendrick Lynn’s awkwardly bouncing chip-kick, Jason Shoemark had the next when he ran splendidly into a gap off the ruck, while loose forwards Steven Setephano and Alando Soakai both pounced off short lineouts near the Blues line.

With both coaches largely leaving their starting XVs intact for the restart, it was the home side who came roaring back into the contest, the Blues rattling off three straight tries to take a 31-27 lead inside the third quarter.

Rokocoko had the first, and his second, when he popped up at the end of a flowing backline move, big John Afoa powered over from close to reduce the gap to just three and then fullback Paul Williams slipped through a gap in the tiring Highlanders defence to put his side into the lead for the first time.

Clint Newland’s try got the Highlanders back in front with a quarter of an hour left, but it was the Blues who fired the final shots with replacement five-eighth Jimmy Gopperth grabbing two late touchdowns to see the home side safely to victory.
The Blues complete their pre-season with two wins and two losses, while the Highlanders have now lost all three of their warmup matches.

The only injury worry for the Highlanders out of the match was the rib injury suffered early by second five Johnny Leota. He was replaced after just a handful of minutes by young Taranaki hopeful Jayden Hayward.

The Highlanders did get a pretty promising match out of young five-eighth Daniel Bowden which may just have done enough to tip the scales his way in the battle with Matt Berquist for the No 10 jersey in next Friday's competition opener against the Brumbies.


Blues 45: Benson Stanley, Joe Rokocoko 2, John Afoa, Paul Williams, Jimmy Gopperth 2 tries; Tasesa Lavea 2 cons; Jimmy Gopperth 3 cons.

Highlanders 34: Jimmy Cowan, Jason Shoemark, Steven Setephano, Alando Soakai, Clint Newland tries; Daniel Bowden pen, 3 cons. Ht: 12-27.


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