Bryce Heem scored two tries as a first-half replacement yesterday and winger Caleb Clarke added two more as the Auckland Blues beat the Queensland Reds 53-26 to stay atop the table in Super Rugby Pacific.
Heem took the field as an early substitute for All Blacks center Rieko Ioane, who strained a hamstring. He touched down first in the 14th minute — less than a minute after taking the field — and again as the Blues built a 22-7 lead after 32 minutes.
The Blues were impressive, hunting turnovers throughout the first half and quickly combining in layered support play to create tries, including one before halftime to Clarke.
Photo: AFP
The Reds were almost constantly going backward, which taxed their tight forwards, but they stayed in the game, overcoming lineout glitches and helped by penalties conceded by the Blues at breakdowns, to create two first-half tries.
Winger Suliasi Vunivalu scored the first and had a role in the second, which was scored by lock Ryan Smith.
Scrumhalf Tate McDermott and flyhalf James O’Connor also helped the Reds with try-saving plays that kept the match in the balance at 22-14 at halftime.
Photo: AFP
The Blues put the match beyond doubt with two tries in the space of three minutes at the start of the second half.
“For us winning’s contagious,” Blues captain Dalton Papalii said. “The last couple of years we’ve gone win loss, win loss, but this year we’ve got a roll on and the winning’s contagious.”
Earlier, the Fijian Drua scored three first-half tries and held on in a tighter second half to beat Moana Pasifika 34-19 in the first official meeting of this season’s Super Rugby newcomers.
In yesterday’s third match, the visiting Wellington Hurricanes beat the NSW Waratahs 22-18 after enduring long periods in the first half without any possession.
Additional reporting by staff writer
Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying (戴資穎) yesterday beat Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon in their women’s singles semi-final match to advance to today’s final at the Thailand Open. The top-seeded Tai overcame a 10-21 first-game loss to seventh seed and former world champion Ratchanok to dominate the final two games 21-13, 21-19 in 58 minutes of play at the Impact Arena in Bangkok. World No. 2 Tai is today to face world No. 4 Chen Yufei of China. Chen yesterday bested Pusarla Venkata Sindhu 21-17, 21-16 to secure her spot in the final of the Super 500 tournament. On Friday, Tai overpowered China’s He Bingjiao 21-10,
Wimbledon, widely regarded as the world’s most prestigious tennis tournament, was on Friday stripped of ranking points by the sport’s main tours in a move that threatens to reduce the Grand Slam to the status of a high-profile exhibition event. The decision by the ATP and WTA was in response to Wimbledon banning Russian and Belarusian players following the invasion of Ukraine. “It is with great regret and reluctance that we see no option but to remove ATP Ranking points from Wimbledon for 2022,” an ATP statement said. “Our rules and agreements exist in order to protect the rights of players as a
Defending champions Taichung Blue Whale thrashed Taoyuan Mars 6-0 in Taiwanese women’s soccer over the weekend, while Hualien City rolled on with their fourth win to sit atop the league table. While Thai fullback Pitsamai Sornsai partnered with compatriot goalkeeper Nattaruja Muthtanawech on defense, Japanese midfielder Maho Tanaka opened the scoring for Blue Whale in Saturday’s match, kicking a screamer on a volley from outside the penalty box — her first goal of the season. The match remained 1-0 heading into the break, although Taoyuan Mars striker Ho Chia-huan, a student at Hsing Wu High School in New Taipei City, had good
Faced with a machete, a fighter leaps and locks his legs around another man’s neck, bringing him crashing down to a cacophony of cheers. This is vovinam, Vietnam’s acrobatic martial art with roots dating back to the country’s struggle for independence, and it is showing at the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games for the first time since 2013. Proponents are trained to use not only their hands and legs to grapple a rival to the ground, but also fend off assailants armed with blades. Short for “Vo Viet Nam” (literally “Vietnamese martial arts”) it was inspired by nationalists who sought an end to the
RSS