A late try by Keven Mealamu saw the Auckland Blues out-gun the Canterbury Crusaders 24-22 in the Super 15 clash of the New Zealand heavyweights at Eden Park yesterday.
In a match brimming with 24 All Blacks, 12 on each side, the Crusaders led 19-6 at halftime before the Blues cut their error count and surged back in the second half with Mealamu’s winning try coming with 10 minutes on the horn.
The Blues dominated possession and cashed in on an advantage around the fringes of broken play where Mealamu was a constant thorn in the Crusaders side.
Photo: Reuters
However, initially the Blues lacked the smarts of the seven-times champions Crusaders, who shut them down with a rock-solid defense and with two open-side flankers, Matt Todd and George Whitelock, were quick to snare turnover ball.
The Crusaders also enjoyed an edge in the battle of the all-All Blacks middle rows where incumbents Sam Whitelock and Brad Thorn had the edge on Ali Williams and Anthony Boric in the line-outs.
However, when the Blues cut down on errors in the second half as it became a matter whether they had enough time to overcome the 13-point deficit
“It’s only week one, but what a way to start the season,” an elated Mealamu said. “In the second half we had some big plays that gave us a lot of confidence.”
Crusaders captain Kieran Read, deputized for the injured Richie McCaw, was left to rue his side not being able to maintain pressure for the full 80 minutes.
“It was very disappointing, the way we came out and we couldn’t continue it,” Read said.
The game was less than a minute old when Dan Carter kicked a penalty from an acute angle, but it was to be a short-lived lead for the Crusaders as Stephen Brett replied with two penalties in quick succession for the Blues.
However, the Crusaders struck back to control the scoring in the rest of the half.
Carter, who had a mixed night with the boot missing two penalties and two conversions in the first half, hurt the Blues with his tactical kicking as he reeled off long-ranging touch-finders.
He also set up the opening try in the 20th minute when he sucked the Blues into thinking he was going up the middle before unloading a late pass to Andy Ellis, who fed Israel Dagg who chipped ahead for Sean Maitland to score.
On the stroke of halftime, Robbie Fruean opened up the Blues back-line in a move that swept the field and ended with Ellis scoring.
In the second half, the Crusaders scoring was restricted to a lone Carter penalty, while the Blues opened up with a third penalty from Brett.
They then narrowed the gap to 19-22 with tries by Benson Stanley and Tony Woodcock, before Mealamu crossed for the winning touchdown.
BRUMBIES 28, CHIEFS 20
In Canberra, the ACT Brumbies kicked off their campaign with a victory over New Zealand’s Waikato Chiefs.
The Brumbies, two-time winners of the southern hemisphere provincial championship, led 18-0 after 21 minutes and had to withstand a late flourish from the Chiefs to take the points.
Winger Tim Nanai-Williams had a conversion attempt to snatch a losing bonus point for the Chiefs after a try by replacement Lelia Masaga on the full-time siren, but his kick hit an upright.
The Chiefs, finalists two years ago, had only themselves to blame for losing their opening match with a litany of errors preventing them from fully testing the Brumbies.
“We got the win which is pretty crucial, previously we would have let teams back into it and then fallen away, so that’s a pleasing aspect,” Brumbies’ skipper Matt Giteau said. “All we can ask for in the first game is effort, execution may not be there, but our effort was good.”
The Brumbies hit the ground running with early tries to quick-stepping newcomer -Robbie -Coleman and winger Francis Fainifo to give the home side the early ascendancy and they led 18-3 at halftime.
The profligate Chiefs had a much-improved second half with All Black winger Sitiveni Sivivatu finishing off a sweet passing move wide out and promising replacement scrumhalf Tewera Kerr-Barlow kicking and regathering to score to trail 18-15 after 57 minutes.
A Giteau penalty and a try to replacement prop Salesi Ma’afu gave the Brumbies some breathing room at 28-15, but Masaga scored wide out to give the Chiefs a shot at a bonus point to no avail.
“We put ourselves in good positions, but we didn’t capitalize on those chances,” Chiefs skipper Mils Muliaina said.
“You can’t give a team like the Brumbies an 18-point start, but we fought back well and got to within three points, only to give the ball back to them again,” Muliaina added. “If you have the attitude you’re halfway there and definitely in the first 40 minutes tonight we didn’t have that.”
The statistics made grim reading for the sloppy Chiefs — 25 missed tackles, 28 turnovers and 16 handling errors.
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