Blues v Highlanders
I loved this game. A true hard fought Kiwi derby.
The wonderful moments silence for the fallen Constable Hunt, with helicopter above. The emotion of Caleb Clarke who had in recent hours lost his grandfather, then being able to honour him with his try.
The continuation of the Blues resurgence for most of the first half. Then the great fight back from the tenacious Highlanders who got their noses in front shortly after half time.
This coinciding with the worst period of play from the Blues these last three games.Two lost lineouts, very poor box kicks and general sloppiness. Then regrouping and scoring a majestic driving maul try. The impetuosity of the veteran hooker diving over the ruck to drop the ball short, and a dangerous breakout.
The cruel mistakes from the young Scott Gregory from probing kicks, he is a much better player than that.
The most beautiful pickup of a ball at speed from Beauden Barrett, just class.
Then to finish this enthralling encounter, the three battles won in the war when the trenches were threatened, down in the far corner, the maul, the scrum and the lineout. The newly arrived hooker with a grenade in his hand to be lobbed into said lineout. You could almost feel his trepidation.
The sweat of the coaches who could only sit and watch.Great game!!
@Bones I’ll say. He’s clearly emotional, but the interviewer wants to keep asking questions???
@ACT-Crusader said in Blues v Highlanders:
@Bones I’ll say. He’s clearly emotional, but the interviewer wants to keep asking questions???
He gathered himself extremely well.
@ACT-Crusader said in Blues v Highlanders:
@Bones I’ll say. He’s clearly emotional, but the interviewer wants to keep asking questions???
Even if we all know he's going to be quite emotional tonight, it's better if the interviewer lets him bring that up himself. Rather than the first question being "So your granddad died today..."
@Stargazer said in Blues v Highlanders:
Blues players bleaching their hair isn't helping the commentators. Noticed several times how they confused Rieko, Sotutu and even Akira (whose hair is pink).
To be fair TJ started off with saying that Black kicked off when Hunt did. I would have thought the fact that Barrett caught the ball might have been a big hint.
@Kirwan said in Blues v Highlanders:
"Thunderstorms are likely and there is a risk that some of these could be accompanied by downpours with rainfall intensities of 25 to 35mm per hour and tornadoes with strong wind gusts.”
Weather is looking great!
So light drizzle in a Queensland sense?
Watch: The Blues' virtuoso kicking game that proved the difference in their win over the Highlanders
While praise has been fairly lavished on the danger-men on the Blues wings and in the midfield, it's the playmakers and their expert kicking that may well have been the difference when they bested the Highlanders on Saturday night.
@mofitzy_ said in Blues v Highlanders:
Sotutu deserves all his plaudits but Mikaele-Tu'u has to be in the same conversation. Good to see 2 young 8s coming through.
Yeah I don't see why both shouldn't be selected for the ABs and I'd be very interested in seeing what MMT could do on the blind as well.
@Snowy said in Blues v Highlanders:
@trodthesod Great post and match. Don't need to comment further now.
Yeah, he covered everything I wanted to say. Great post.
Blues last year would have lost this game. They regrouped really well to save the game with that maul defence. Kudos to Tom Coventry for fixing a huge weakness.
Crowd was incredible, really sat on Hunt for that crucial miss. Huge crowd for thunderstorms and tornadoes.
Great night out.
@Kirwan said in Blues v Highlanders:
Kudos to Tom Coventry for fixing a huge weakness.
Amen.
Some great mental fortitude that has been severely lacking in the past as well as some, well, fortitude.
Coaching team doing well and the new talents like Sotutu and Clarke are being picked and playing lots of minutes. Really enjoying this comp.
Winning helps of course.
@Frank said in Blues v Highlanders:
Just realized Caleb Clarke is the son of Eroni.
It clicked when I saw him thanking Jesus for the try.
Turns out he was chatting to Grandpa.
@mofitzy_ said in Blues v Highlanders:
The most beautiful pickup of a ball at speed from Beauden Barrett,just class.
Rupeni like.
@Kirwan BB was immense for us last night. Really good kicking, and gave us confidence from the back. The contrast with the interview with Michael Collins was chalk and cheese.
@nzzp said in Blues v Highlanders:
The contrast with the interview with Michael Collins was chalk and cheese.
You are talking about the great communicator?
I’m watching the replay now, and I can’t understand how the landers try was disallowed? It was clearly kicked out of his hands by Ioane but it turns out that’s not what he was carded for (offside apparently)
Why the fuck have video refs if they can’t step up and make the right calls?
It should be another penalty advantage and the try should stand and Ioane should get ten.
Edit: I see it wasn' game changing at least, as they scored pretty much straight away, which is good.
@mofitzy_ said in Blues v Highlanders:
The most beautiful pickup of a ball at speed from Beauden Barrett,just class.
Beaudy is just so skillful in the way he can do little things when space is at a premium. Makes things look so easy.
@pakman said in Blues v Highlanders:
@mofitzy_ said in Blues v Highlanders:
The most beautiful pickup of a ball at speed from Beauden Barrett,just class.
Beaudy is just so skillful in the way he can do little things when space is at a premium. Makes things look so easy.
BB is some player as I've been saying for some time.
Sam Cane, Sam Whitelock, Aaron Smith and Beauden Barrett. All going to be picked for the ABs (if injury free) for a little while more yet.
@gt12 Worked out better for the Highlanders funnily enough haha. Ioane gets binned and they end up scoring closer to the posts.
@African-Monkey said in Blues v Highlanders:
@gt12 Worked out better for the Highlanders funnily enough haha. Ioane gets binned and they end up scoring closer to the posts.
100%
If it was a yellow card before scoring, it was a YC after scoring. But you have to be clear and consistent on what gets you a YC
@Dice said in Blues v Highlanders:
Really impressed with our prop depth - might be as good as I've ever seen it. We now have 6 solid props to work with.
Who knew Renata could scrum so well at loosehead? Small sample, but he's looked real dominate there.
Afeaki has done a really nice job since taking over.
He's brought the Blues scrum a long way since the dark days of Sam Prattley!
Now the dust has settled on that great battle last Saturday,and watching a replay of that maul where the Blues held the ball up.,the question I have is this.Given that Sotutu was legal,are the backs coming in from the side ok? If they are not the reaction of Tom Coventry in the box is understandable.Phew!
@trodthesod said in Blues v Highlanders:
Now the dust has settled on that great battle last Saturday,and watching a replay of that maul where the Blues held the ball up.,the question I have is this.Given that Sotutu was legal,are the backs coming in from the side ok? If they are not the reaction of Tom Coventry in the box is understandable.Phew!
Nope! Got away with a little there 
@trodthesod said in Blues v Highlanders:
Now the dust has settled on that great battle last Saturday,and watching a replay of that maul where the Blues held the ball up.,the question I have is this.Given that Sotutu was legal,are the backs coming in from the side ok? If they are not the reaction of Tom Coventry in the box is understandable.Phew!
i didn't think they were legal, looked like Clarke, christie and black all just flew in the side once they saw the ball was being held up.
I've heard people say that once the ball is held up its a free for all, maybe if it was still a tackle but my understanding is he had called Maul and until he blows up the maul they should have come from the back
I'me bias thought so who knows
@Kiwiwomble said in Blues v Highlanders:
I've heard people say that once the ball is held up its a free for all
Those people don't know what the fuck they're talking about. There's always an offside line for a maul in the field of play.
OFFSIDE AT A MAUL
Each team has an offside line that runs parallel to the goal line through the maul participants’ hindmost foot that is nearest to that team’s goal line. If that foot is on or behind the goal line, the offside line for that team is the goal line.
- A player must either join a maul from an onside position or retire behind their offside line immediately. Sanction: Penalty.
JOINING A MAUL
Players joining a maul must:
- Do so from an onside position.
- Bind on to the hindmost player in the maul.
@antipodean said in Blues v Highlanders:
@Kiwiwomble said in Blues v Highlanders:
I've heard people say that once the ball is held up its a free for all
Those people don't know what the fuck they're talking about. There's always an offside line for a maul in the field of play.
OFFSIDE AT A MAUL
Each team has an offside line that runs parallel to the goal line through the maul participants’ hindmost foot that is nearest to that team’s goal line. If that foot is on or behind the goal line, the offside line for that team is the goal line.
- A player must either join a maul from an onside position or retire behind their offside line immediately. Sanction: Penalty.
JOINING A MAUL
Players joining a maul must:
- Do so from an onside position.
- Bind on to the hindmost player in the maul.
I see that stipulation being ignored a lot in all games, particularly when the backs join an attacking maul
@trodthesod said in Blues v Highlanders:
Thank you for clearing that up.
The Blues obviously dodged one there.You win some and you lose some! Perhaps the ref had already called held up.
That’s what I’m going with, was up for a while.
@Kiwiwomble said in Blues v Highlanders:
@trodthesod said in Blues v Highlanders:
Now the dust has settled on that great battle last Saturday,and watching a replay of that maul where the Blues held the ball up.,the question I have is this.Given that Sotutu was legal,are the backs coming in from the side ok? If they are not the reaction of Tom Coventry in the box is understandable.Phew!
i didn't think they were legal, looked like Clarke, christie and black all just flew in the side once they saw the ball was being held up.
I've heard people say that once the ball is held up its a free for all, maybe if it was still a tackle but my understanding is he had called Maul and until he blows up the maul they should have come from the back
I'me bias thought so who knows
Yeah, I'm not sure what the deal is there, because you often see that when a player is held up in general play even if the ref calls "maul".
@trodthesod said in Blues v Highlanders:
Thank you for clearing that up.
The Blues obviously dodged one there.You win some and you lose some! Perhaps the ref had already called held up.
looking at it, I think the ruling was that the ball carrier detached and the maul was therefore over - that's when everyone ran in as it became a tackle situation, and joining the tackle seems a bit lax.
Blues were lucky. Backs are dumb.
As an aside, does anyone have video of Parsons dropping the ball over line?
It occurred to me after to wonder if he was interfered with by a player on the ground, which would have been a penalty/PT, or if he was just a clumsy oaf.
But it only occurred after the game and I didn't look.