A Beauden Barrett penalty goal in golden point has allowed the Blues to escape an inspired Super Round comeback from the Queensland Reds with a 36-33 win.<\/p>\n
The Blues led 21-7 in the first half and then 33-21 with 15 minutes to play, but both times copped a mighty Reds response in Saturday’s second game at Christchurch’s One NZ Stadium.<\/p>\n
A converted Louis Werchon try on the buzzer forced extra time.<\/p>\n
The Blues then camped in the Reds’ half until captain Fraser McReight was pinged for incorrect entry to the ruck.<\/p>\n
A frustrated McReight questioned the decision, arguing for a Blues knock-on given the ball spilled out during the play.<\/p>\n
But it mattered little as Barrett, after a mixed night, slotted the winning points from a slight angle to move his side, at least temporarily, into second place.<\/p>\n
“Shit happens, doesn’t it,” gutted Reds coach Les Kiss said, explaining the directive had been for McReight, and only McReight, to look for the pilfer.<\/p>\n
“The truth is three or four things could have been picked out (in the decisive moment) and as a seven you have to ****ing look for the opportunities.<\/p>\n
“The boys have an appetite and mindset to keep playing, despite the fact it got away from us. We didn’t die wondering.”<\/p>\n
McReight said he would likely analyse the moment in the coming days.<\/p>\n
“As a No.7 you live for those moments … you want to put yourself in that position,” he said.<\/p>\n
It was a third-straight win for New Zealand sides over Australian teams inside 24 hours at the venue and solidified a Super Rugby Pacific ladder now occupied from first to fourth by Kiwi sides.<\/p>\n
The Reds (5-4) sit sixth, behind the Brumbies, despite producing some brilliance to halt the Blues’ early momentum and then manufacture an extra period when the game looked gone.<\/p>\n
Wallabies captain Harry Wilson scored a try and was heavily involved in one of his best games this season while flyhalf Harry McLaughlin-Phillips – with Test pair Carter Gordon and Tom Lynagh both sidelined – and halfback Kalani Thomas both caused problems.<\/p>\n
Lock Lukhan Salakaia-Loto bumped off bodies all night to continue his fine season.<\/p>\n
Blues fullback Zarn Sullivan scored a first-half double while Reds winger Tim Ryan dove to finish a spectacular try down the right edge and also produced a solid try-saving tackle on Cole Forbes.<\/p>\n
Ryan’s try made it a seven-point game in the final few minutes and they were offered one last shot when Barrett’s kick for touch only made 10 metres.<\/p>\n
The Reds mauled close to the line before Werchon burrowed over.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But the Blues, as first try scorers, were allowed to kick-off and the Reds defended stoutly for three minutes before the inevitable penalty.<\/p>\n
“The boys said it was one of the toughest games they’ve played in a long time,” Blues coach Vern Cotter said.<\/p>\n
“Tight situations need clear heads and that’s what we got.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
Blues 36\u00a0(Tries:\u00a0Sullivan 2, Forbes, Papali’i, Slater; Cons: Barrett 4; Pens: Barrett)\u00a0def Queensland Reds 33\u00a0(Tries:\u00a0McReight, Wilson, Campbell, Ryan, Werchon; McLaughlin-Phillips 3, Volavola)<\/p>\n
Teams<\/p>\n
Blues:\u00a015 Zarn Sullivan, 14 Kade Banks, 13 AJ Lam, 12 Pita Ahki, 11 Cole Forbes, 10 Beauden Barrett, 9 Finlay Christie, 8 Hoskins Sotutu, 7 Dalton Papali\u2019i, 6 Anton Segner, 5 Sam Darry, 4 Patrick Tuipulotu (captain), 3 Marcel Renata, 2 Bradley Slater, 1 Ben Ake
\n\tReplacements:\u00a016 James Mullan, 17 Mason Tupaea, 18 Sam Matenga, 19 Josh Beehre, 20 Torian Barnes, 21 Taufa Funaki, 22 Stephen Perofeta, 23 Xavi Taele<\/p>\n
Reds:\u00a015 Jock Campbell, 14 Filipo Daugunu, 13 Josh Flook, 12 Hunter Paisami, 11 Tim Ryan, 10 Harry McLaughlin-Phillips, 9 Kalani Thomas, 8 Harry Wilson, 7 Fraser McReight (captain), 6 Joe Brial, 5 Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, 4 Seru Uru, 3 Zane Nonggorr, 2 Matt Faessler, 1 Aidan Ross
\n\tReplacements:\u00a016 Josh Nasser, 17 Jeffery Toomaga-Allen, 18 Nick Bloomfield, 19 Hamish Muller, 20 Vaiuta Latu, 21 Louis Werchon, 22 Ben Volavola, 23 Treyvon Pritchard<\/p>\n
Referee:\u00a0James Doleman
\n\tAssistant referees:\u00a0Marcus Playle, Damon Murphy
\n\tTMO:\u00a0Richard Kelly<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Beauden Barrett penalty goal in golden point has allowed the Blues to escape an inspired Super Round…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":629971,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-629970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/629971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}