Rieko Ioane scored a double as the Auckland Blues burnished their finals credentials with a 43-10 win over the Golden Lions at Eden Park yesterday.
The New Zealand-based team scored six tries to one to post a fourth straight victory and remain on course for their first finals berth since 2011.
Captain T.J. Faiane praised the composure of the team, who have faced accusation in past seasons of wilting under pressure.
Photo: AFP
“We stayed disciplined and didn’t give away too many penalties, for me that’s the most pleasing thing,” Faiane said. “The boys put in the hard work during the week and it’s god to see it paid off today.”
It was the fourth defeat in a row for the Lions and skipper Elton Jantjies they continued to make too many mistakes.
“It’s breakdown errors, not rolling away, small things like that,” Jantjies said. “At Super Rugby and Test level you need to make sure you’re clinical in certain areas.”
Ioane, the one-time winger who is reinventing himself in the centers, opened the scoring in the eighth minute.
Daniel Kriel hit back with a converted try to briefly give the Lions the lead, but from there it was one-way traffic as the Blues dominated.
Stephen Perofeta dotted down after 31 minutes and the Blues were then awarded a penalty try just before halftime after Lions flanker Ruan Vermaak was sinbinned for a deliberate knock down. Ioane scored his second shortly after the restart, before Gerard Crowley-Tuioti and Hoskins Sotutu completed the rout.
MEDVEDEV AWAITS: The world No. 1 Spainiard said that he is ‘finding the right shots’ as he pushed his record so far this year to 16 victories and no losses Carlos Alcaraz on Thursday extended his unbeaten season and got revenge over Cameron Norrie to reach the semi-finals at Indian Wells for a fifth straight year. The world No. 1 from Spain emerged from a see-saw battle with 29th-ranked Norrie with a 6-3, 6-4 victory. In the semis tomorrow, he faces Russian Daniil Medvedev, who pushed his own ATP winning streak to eight matches with a 6-1, 7-5 victory over defending champion Jack Draper. World No. 2 Jannik Sinner powered past Learner Tien 6-1, 6-2 to line up a semi-final with fourth-ranked Alexander Zverev, a 6-2, 6-3 winner over Arthur Fils. Alcaraz, 22, became
West Ham United on Monday advanced to the FA Cup quarter-finals with a 5-3 penalty shoot-out win against Brentford, who paid the price for Dango Ouattara’s spot-kick blunder. Nuno Espirito Santo’s side twice blew the lead as Jarrod Bowen’s double was canceled out by an Igor Thiago brace to force extra-time in the 2-2 draw at the London Stadium, but in the shoot-out, Brentford winger Ouattara attempted a chipped Panenka penalty, but his woeful effort was straight at West Ham goalkeeper Alphonse Areola. It was an awful mistake by the Burkina Faso international and West Ham took full advantage. Bowen, Valentin Castellanos, Callum
Thanks to Italy beating Mexico on Wednesday, the US get another chance in the World Baseball Classic (WBC). What looked like a potentially disastrous early exit for US manager Mark DeRosa and his team turned out to be nothing more than substantial worry and significant embarrassment for about 24 hours. It remains to be seen whether the US really want to win badly enough for the reprieve to matter, as if it is just a switch they can flick, but there is little reason for their fans to be optimistic. The team’s attitude and behavior have been all over the place when
Team Taiwan’s World Baseball Classic (WBC) journey ended last night when South Korea beat Australia 7-2 and won the tiebreaker with Australia and Taiwan to advance to the tournament’s quarter-finals in Miami. South Korea earned its spot by scoring a run in the top of the ninth to do just enough under the tiebreaker rules to advance. The result saw Taiwan, South Korea and Australia tied for second in WBC Pool C behind undefeated Japan with 2-2 records. The tiebreaker was determined by dividing a team’s total runs allowed by the total number of defensive outs in games among the tied teams, and
RSS