Blues win thriller at Eden Park

The Blues are on the board in this season’s Super Rugby Pacific after claiming a thrilling 24-22 come-from-behind win over the Chiefs at Eden Park.

Caleb Clarke
Photo: PHOTOSPORT

Leon MacDonald’s men bounced back at home in the afternoon sunshine in the heavyweight clash, avoiding the collapse they had experienced last weekend in Dunedin.

Stephen Perofeta made a winning contribution with his stunning conversion from near the sidelines, giving the Blues the two-point advantage with minutes to play.

Taking the ball off the back of the scrum, Beauden Barrett moved the ball wide minutes before through the backs, as Perofeta used his speed to evade the Chiefs’ defence and set Mark Talea up wide in the corner, with the game balanced at 22-22.

A lineout infrintement and resulting penalty looked to be potentially sending the game south of the Bombay Hills and out of the Blues’ hands again. This time, luck was on the Aucklander’s side when Bryn Gatland set the ball for the penalty, but missed at the death.

While Perofeta’s winning conversion was one of the influential moments of the afternoon, there was brilliant play from Dalton Papalii, Hoskins Sotutu and Caleb Clark.

Earlier the Chiefs had looked in control of scoreboard, leading 12-10 at halftime, with strong performances from Sam Cane and Etene Nanai-Seturo, Josh Lord and Sione Mafileo. The Chiefs led from halftime through to the 75th minute and the Blues will take plenty of confidence because they had to be at their bustling best to get past them.

Beauden Barrett came on at half-time for his first game of Super Rugby Pacific this season, following a head knock last year with the All Blacks.

In other games this round, Fijian Drua notched a historic 31-26 Super Rugby Pacific win over the Melbourne Rebels, while Moana Pasifika went down 33-12 to the Crusaders.