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Blues come unstuck again
16/03/2008 14:42 - (SA)
Auckland - The Western Force delivered a telling body blow to the Blues' Vodacom Super 14 challenge after they came from behind to win 27-17 at Eden Park in Auckland on Saturday.
It was another of those games that illustrated to the rugby people of the Antipodes just how big the mountain was that the South Africans had to climb in playing four or five tour matches in every Super 14 season.
The Blues started impressively enough, but in the second half it was clear that the travel and the ravages of their three match tour of South Africa had caught up with them.
After leading 17-7 at half-time, they could not retain their intensity in the battle for the ball at the breakdown and with several injuries, including one to key playmaker Nick Evans, also disrupting them, they fell away quite alarmingly towards the end.
Indeed, by the time the final whistle blew, the Blues looked a tired and jaded unit, as witnessed by the fact that they conceded 20 unanswered points in the second half.
Blues starts to struggle
It was the second successive defeat for the Blues, who suffered their first loss in Durban a week ago, and with the inform Stormers up as their next opponents, some soul-searching is going to be needed by David Nucifora and his men.
It was a great day for Force coach John Mitchell. The former All Black mentor had not won in New Zealand with the Force before this game, and he looked a happy man as he joined in the celebrations afterwards.
The Force only lost in the last minutes against the Crusaders in their previous match in Perth, so this win made up for that disappointment.
The Force now boast three wins in five starts, two of those wins being narrow victories on South African soil, and they do look the part of worthy challengers for a place in the semifinals.
One team that will be really happy with this result though is the Sharks, for it means that if they win at Ellis Park later on Saturday it will put them two wins ahead of the Blues on the log and mean a huge boost for their own challenge for a home semifinal.
The Blues gave no indication of their later troubles in the first half.
Their scrum was solid, they got numbers to the ball at the breakdown, and tries from Tony Woodcock and Anthony Tuitavake against one from Cameron Shepherd powered them into their comfortable half-time buffer. The disrupted Blues started to struggle though from half-time, and the Force pack slowly but surely began to assert itself.
A Matt Giteau penalty drew the Force to within seven points, and then after a period of prolonged pressure and a relentless buildup, which went through 11 phases, No8 Richard Brown went over for a converted try that drew the scores level.
A Giteau penalty from the middle of the field with a quarter of an hour remaining put the Force into the lead, and then, with less than 10 minutes left on the clock, another systematic buildup resulted in Tamatai Tohua going over for a try that put the issue beyond doubt.
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Rugby
