Chiefs v Blues

[Amobokoboko]

Sloppy defense. Great try by Payne

 

[Amobokoboko]

Ah man, close loss.

 

[Darwin]

Close game, but I feel the Blues deserved the win. The Chiefs looked the better team for the first 30-odd minutes, particularly in the forwards. However the Blues seemed to get better as the game went on, and were the dominant team in the second half.

Because of the poor conditions neither of the backlines had much chance to run with the ball. As much as I rate Mathewson, I thought his lack of a quality kicking game was exposed today, with a number of his kicks either going out on the full, or just not going far enough. In contrast Leonard put the Blues under quite a lot of pressure with his accurate kicks (though a felt he kicked just a bit too much). Hard to pick many standouts in the backs for either team, but I thought Sivivatu and Toeava where probably the two most dangerous backs on show.

Mealamu was again a standout for the Blues - his "follow me" style of captaincy is really beneficial in these sort of games. Kaino had a very quite first half, but burst to life in the second making a number of telling runs and tackles. Isaac Ross again showed some beautiful ball skills for the Chiefs, and even hit a ruck during the game - this actually forced a turnover, as the Blues weren't expecting him to be anywhere near a ruck.... Messem and Scott Waldrom both had strong games in the loose, while Toby Smith made a huge impact when he came on the field - before he came the the Chiefs scrum was getting destroyed, but after he came on the Chiefs had the dominant scrum.

 

[smartcooky]

I have no allegiance either way, but I have to say, from a referees perspective, that Ian Smith was sub-standard, and the Chief's scrum was really hard done by.

Smith appeared utterly clueless as to what was going on in the scrum. Blind Freddy could see that Afoa was binding incorrectly and turning in on the Blues' TH side. Then, after several resets and penalties to the Blues for the Chiefs supposedly either collapsing or "not driving straight", Smith finally decides to come around onto that side of the scrum. As if by magic, all the trouble on Afoa's side stops happening, but so does the Blues' forward scrum momentum, and they are forced to use the ball, then are penalised for sealing off at the first breakdown.

 

[TRF_RC]

Weather forecast for Hamilton is not looking too promising... beautiful (as usual) down here in Dunedin

Bloody North Islanders and their British-esque weather. Glad i'm moving to Queenstown now
That rain ruined what could have been a running spectacle.
Some great opportunistic tries, but unfortunately, due to the conditions it made the game very stop and start because of all the handling errors.

 

[Larksea]

first off I thought it was a very good game, considering the conditions it was still great to watch. Maybe a draw would have been a more fitting result but really the main factor for the chiefs would maybe be their Hero from last week who this week became the villan. one brilliant kick for position late in the game didn't really make up for what overall was a poor kicking performance missing some shots at goal, not making 10m at restarts and overall pretty poor positional kicking.

Also for the chiefs the call from the sideline to bring Leonard off at about the 60min mark was in my view a very poor call and hurt the chiefs. leonard had an impressive game and had the better of mathewson and so far this season Moa has not made a positive impact when he has come on and he didn't this time either. And it would not have been a coincidence that mathewson's game improved when Leonard whet off.

As much as people like Nainai williams and say the chiefs dont miss Mills it becomes so obvious in close games like this just how much he is missed. Tim made a couple of critical mistakes one of which lead to the bluse try. The kind of mistakes Mills almost never makes.

The other saw point for the chiefs that hurt them was the lineout/Lineout throwing. Though both teams struggled with their own lineouts if the throw is not straight you have no chance.

Players who played well.
Messam - either with the ball or on defence he was everywhere and found the power to go forward when needed.
Leonard - managed the ball well, kicked well and defended well. He quite rightly didn't look impressed when he was subbed off early.
Taumalolo - Had a poor year last year but looks much better this season. Scrum work has improved.
Waldrum - He and Messam have been the heart of the chiefs forward pack this year.
toby Smith - the short time he was on the field he made a massive impact. Sure bet for future all black selection IMO.
Masanga - Looked deadly even in the wet. If not for a couple of dropped balls he could have won it.
Tana & Kahui - good on defence but didn't get many chances on attack. Which is a shame because kahui in particular seemed well balanced on the wet surface.
nathan White - An unsung hero for the chiefs he has been fornced to play a lot of minutes for the chiefs because of front row injuries yet he's still performing well though maybe not as mobile as many of the top NZ front rowers.

Blues
McAlister - Made his kicks early in the game while Delany missed his, good kicking around the field.
Brett - some nice touches during the game seems to have a good combination with Luke.
Toeava - time and time again he's the best of the blues.
Kaino - not as busy as messam but what he did do was just as effective. couple of great clashes between the two.
Boric - Like messam is the heart of the Chiefs pack Boric is the heart of the blues pack. Leading by example, has stepped up the intensity of his game from last year.
Payne - classy player every week.
Mealamu - good game but not spectacular. large workload.

 

[FlukeArtist]

I must have been watching a different game larksea.

In the game I watched Mealamu and Kaino were outstanding for the Blues.

The Blues forwards totally outplayed the Chiefs pack for all but the first 25 mins of the game.

@Smartcooky,

I find it funny how you come to that conclusion when it was obvious for everyone else (inlcuding the commentators) that taumalolo was lucky to stay on the field, and the Chiefs were lucky to not concede a penalty try

 

[Larksea]

Blues scrum was strong at that time of the game though they were lucky too I saw Afoa's hand on the ground and he could have been done. Seemed to be the ref may have got a call fron the touch so he swapped sides then with the Ref on Afoa's side the Chiefs scrum was much better. Maybe the chiefs were lucky but if the ref had given a penalty try or a card at that stage it would have been on guess work - which is what a lot of refs seem to do at the scrum these days.

Towards the end of the game the chiefs scrum was dominant.

 

[Sam Owen]

Conditions played a part but Im wrapped we got the win.