A late Blake Gibson try yesterday ensured the Auckland Blues ended an 18-year title drought when their All Blacks-stacked forward pack orchestrated a 23-15 victory over the Otago Highlanders to claim the Super Rugby Trans-Tasman crown.
The all-New Zealand final to the Australasian championship was an intensely physical battle, with the Blues possessing too much firepower up front, where they rolled over the Highlanders at the breakdown and controlled nearly 66 percent of possession.
However, the Blues’ ill-discipline allowed the underdog Highlanders to land three penalties in seven minutes to snatch a 15-13 lead with 12 minutes remaining.
Photo: AFP
When an upset appeared possible, the Blues forwards won crucial penalties to first regain the lead with a Harry Plummer penalty and then seal the outcome with a converted try to Gibson with 2 minutes remaining.
Before a crowd of 36,000, and on a calm night after a tornado swept through Auckland leaving a trail of destruction earlier in the day, the Blues secured their first silverware since they won their third Super title in 2003.
Since then, they have been regarded as underachievers and were again in danger of losing a crunch match until Gibson’s late heroics.
“I don’t score many tries and normally don’t show any emotion as well, but that felt pretty good,” an ecstatic Gibson said.
“The boys showed a lot of grit, especially in the second 40 and luckily we scored that try because I wouldn’t want to have been defending the line in the last couple of minutes,” he said.
Flanker Dalton Papali’i, one of six All Blacks in the Blues pack, said it was a relief to end the championship drought.
“It’s a weight off your shoulders. When we had to dig deep, we trusted the boys, we trusted the processes and we came out on top,” he said.
A Mitch Hunt penalty gave the Highlanders an early lead before the Blues hit the front with a try to left wing Mark Telea, who latched on to a well-placed cross-kick from flyhalf Otere Black.
Black, who landed the conversion, required treatment for a head knock soon after, which resulted in a yellow card for Highlanders skipper Ash Dixon to mar his 100th game for the club.
While the Highlanders were down to 14 men, Plummer and Hunt traded penalties for the Blues to lead 10-6 before Black returned after passing his head injury assessment to land a further penalty for the Blues on the stroke of halftime.
Although the Highlanders spent much of the second spell struggling to get out of their own half, the Blues squandered scoring chances when Black missed a close range penalty and Hoskins Sotutu lost the ball on the line.
At the three-quarter mark, and in a rare foray over the half-way line, the Highlanders punished the Blues with two penalties to Hunt and a long-range effort by Josh Ioane to hit the front.
They were unable to hold on as the Blues produced 10 points in the closing 10 minutes.
Brazil has four teams, more than any other country, in the expanded Club World Cup that kicked off yesterday in the US, but for SE Palmeiras, the competition holds a special meaning: winning it would provide some redemption. Under coach Abel Ferreira since 2020, Palmeiras lifted two Copa Libertadores titles, plus Brazilian league, cup and state championships. Even before Ferreira, it boasted another South American crown and 11 league titles. The only major trophy missing is a world champions’ title. Other Brazilian clubs like Fluminense FC and Botafogo FR, also in the tournament, have never won it either, but the problem for Palmeiras
Paris Saint-Germain’s Lee Kang-in has pleaded with South Korea fans to get behind the team at the 2026 FIFA World Cup after more boos were aimed at coach Hong Myung-bo despite leading them to qualification. South Korea reached next year’s finals in North America without losing a game, but that does not tell the whole story. The country’s soccer association has been in the firing line, having scrambled about to find a successor after sacking the unpopular Jurgen Klinsmann in February last year. They eventually settled on Hong, the decorated former skipper who had an unsuccessful stint as coach in 2013-2014, during which
Lionel Messi drew vast crowds and showed flashes of his brilliance when his Inter Miami side were held to a goalless draw by African giants Al-Ahly as the revamped FIFA Club World Cup got off to a festive start on Saturday. Fans showed up en masse for the Group A clash at the Hard Rock Stadium, home to the NFL’s Miami Dolphins, but Messi could not fully deliver, his best chance coming through a last-second attempt that was deflected onto the crossbar. Inter Miami next face FC Porto on Thursday in Atlanta, while Al-Ahly, who benefited from raucous, massive support, are to
Ferrari’s F1 fortunes might be flagging, but the Italian team start this weekend’s 24 Hours of Le Mans as favorites, targeting a third consecutive triumph in motorsport’s fabled endurance classic. Roger Federer is acting as celebrity starter with the tennis icon getting the 93rd edition of the jewel in four-wheeled endurance racing’s crown under way tomorrow. Twenty-four hours later, through daylight, darkness and dawn, the 21 elite hypercars are to battle it out over 300 laps (more than 4,000km) in front of a sold-out 320,000 crowd burning the midnight oil with copious quantities of coffee and beer. Ferrari made a triumphant return after
RSS