Canes blow the Blues away
Friday February 10 2006
Five-try second half rout
The Hurricanes, scoring five tries in the second half, came back from being 16-3 down at the break to beat the Blues 37-19 in the opening match of the inaugural Super 14 competition at Eden Park in Auckland on Friday.
Tana Umaga on the run
It wasn't the wind's fault. The bit of a breeze had nothing to do with the dramatic change of fortunes in the second half when the Blues changed from leading by 13 points and looking like winners to losing by 15 and looking really well beaten as the Hurricanes blew them away.
At home the hospitable Blues got no points while giving the Hurricanes five.
There were lots of firsts, mainly because the match itself was a first - the first Super 14 match. Bryce Lawrence blew the first Super 14 whistle and Tasesa Lavea kicked off to start the new competition. Rodney So'oialo caught the first kick-off and from inside their 22 the Hurricanes started running.
They enjoyed the majority of possession in the first half but the Blues, with the breeze behind them, enjoyed the majority of territory as again and again they pushed the Hurricanes back, partly with rush-defence, partly with the boot where Lavea and Isa Nacewa played to the corners, and partly through their own errors, and their most erroneous player was veteran Tana Umaga. His knock-on led to the first scrum of Super 14.
When Lavea kicked out, the Hurricanes had the first line-out of Super 14. When Luke McAlister held on in a tackle by Umaga, he conceded the first penalty of Super 14, and when Jimmy Gopperth held on, McAlister goaled to score the first points of Super 14. When Angus Macdonald tackled and held So'oialo, Gopperth made it 3-all.
The Blues had heads up and were confident about counter-attacking.
Ali Williams caught the ball in a line-out and the Blues mauled it down the field on their left. They released the ball and Lavea sliced in a diagonal till Ben Atiga came in straight on him. Stumbling past three would-be tacklers, Atiga drove over for a try near the padding. McAlister converted and after 29 minutes the Blues led 10-3.
Williams knocked the kick-off backwards - into the arms of Chris Masoe who charged ahead. Jerry Collins carried it on and the Hurricanes were blowing hot. Umaga broke but when he tried a delicate grubber, the movement broke down.
Two penalties by McAlister, one for off-side and the second soon afterwards for a maul infringement, took the Blues to 16-3 at half-time, and looking full value for their lead.
They did not look like retaining the lead in the second half as the visitors outscored them 34-3 ... 34-3!
It started four minutes into the half from an odd bit of scrumming. On the attack, the Hurricanes fed the scrum, but the Blues wheeled it to have a scrum of their own. The Hurricanes wheeled that to get a put in to themselves. From that scrum on their left they went wide right with Manu Nonu in from the left to feed young fullback Isaia Toeava who flipped inside to Lome Fa'atau who burst over to score the Hurricanes' first try of Super 14. 16-8.
Right from the kick-off the Hurricanes threatened, but Umaga knocked on.
At this stage the rain started. It came straight down, confirming that the wind was not really a factor but it may have caused some of the wonky handling in the half.
Down the left came the Hurricanes. Fa'atau gave to Toeava and he played inside to Umaga who powered over for a try in Keven Mealamu's tackle. That was enough for the iconic veteran and he took his rest. The change was significant for Nonu now moved to centre, with Shannon Paku coming in on the wing. From now on Nonu was brilliant.
Gopperth converted Umaga's try to make the score 16-15 with 23 minutes to play. Victory for the Hurricanes now looked inevitable.
They did not have to wait long for the lead. After replacement scrum-half Steve Devine had been rendered groggy in a Jerry Collins tackle, Nonu coming in straight ran over him. The maned centre then ran over Nacewa and surfed over for the try at the posts. This try and Umaga's were referred to the television match official who had an easy job of advising the try.
Gopperth converted. 22-16 with 20 minutes to play.
When Jason Eaton was penalised for an air tackle on Ali Williams in a line-out, McAlister bounced, slipped and still goaled. 22-16. Soon afterwards McAlister was off-target with a straight forward penalty attempt, and the Blues had lost their last chance to score in the half.
Eaton then became a hero. The Blues threw in at a line-out five metres from their line and tall Eaton stretched up and poached the throw. Nonu bashed as the Hurricanes went left and then Jerry Collins surged over for the bonus-point try. David Holwell, back after a sojourn in Ireland, came on for Gopperth. He missed the conversion. It did not matter as there was going to be only one winner - and the Hurricanes had the first bonus point in Super 14.
When Masoe put pressure on John Senio, the scrum-half, back on for a bleeding Devine, lost the ball backwards. Masoe picked it up, shucked off Lavea and sped down the field. He gave to Fa'atau for the tattooed wing's second try. Holwell converted. 34-19 with nine minutes to play.
Weepu grubbered down the right and Nacewa conceded a five-metre scrum. That was where the Hurricanes played out the match. After the siren had gone the Blues conceded a penalty for off-side and Holwell kicked the ball over. It was the only penalty the Blues had conceded in the half.
The whistle went, and the Hurricanes had won the first-ever Super 14 match.
Man the Match: Such was the one-sided nature of the second half that only Hurricanes were candidates and probably the most prominent amongst them were lively, strong flank Chris Masoe, effective, sturdy scrum-half Piri Weepu and our Man of the Match for the difference he made when he moved to centre - Manu Nonu.
The scorers:
For the Blues:
Try: Atiga
Con: McAlister
Pens: McAlister 3
For the Hurricanes:
Tries: Fa'atau 2, Umaga, Nonu, Collins
Cons: Gopperth 2, Holwell
Pens: Gopperth, Holwell
