{"id":271527,"date":"2026-02-07T00:58:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T00:58:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/271527\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T00:58:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T00:58:13","slug":"blues-outclass-crusaders-in-high-scoring-onewa-domain-pre-season-clash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/271527\/","title":{"rendered":"Blues outclass Crusaders in high-scoring Onewa Domain pre-season clash"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Super Rugby Pacific<\/a> pre-season for 2026 has concluded for both the Blues<\/a> and the Crusaders<\/a> at Onewa Domain in Auckland, where the Blues have defeated the Crusaders, 45-24.<\/p>\n

The club rugby ground on the North Shore was packed with fans supporting both sides, on the Waitangi Day public holiday.<\/p>\n

Rico Simpson and Pita Ahki<\/a> were the standouts for the Auckland-based franchise in the first half, while Jae Broomfield<\/a> and Leicester<\/a> Fainga\u2019anuku were among the away side\u2019s best.<\/p>\n

Stephen Perofeta played a key part in the Blues\u2019 second-half performance, alongside All Black loose forward Dalton Papalii, who was strong on defence.<\/p>\n

Rob Penney\u2019s side started with a hiss and a roar on Friday afternoon, opening the scoring within the first three minutes.<\/p>\n

Crusaders winger Jae Broomfield put a nice kick in behind the Blues defence, where he regathered and fired a pass to Kyle Preston. Preston sprinted under the posts to score before Rivez Reihana<\/a> added the extras.<\/p>\n

Vern Cotter\u2019s side then managed to finally get their hands on the ball, hitting back after nine minutes.<\/p>\n

Young Blues first-five Rico Simpson<\/a> had the initiative to shuffle the ball onto Pita Ahki close to the line, who bundled his way over to tie the game at seven a-piece.<\/p>\n

Fainga\u2019anuku then flexed his muscles in the 18th minute, breaking the Blues defensive line.<\/p>\n

The away side then had a couple of attempts close to the line, before Fainga\u2019anuku showed his class, powering his way over the line from close range.<\/p>\n

Two minutes after the restart, Simpson got his hands on the ball, stepped off his right foot and burst through a gap in the Crusaders defence.<\/p>\n

Simpson looked to link up with support, but his kick in behind only forced a five meter scrum.<\/p>\n

The resulting scrum created another opportunity for the Blues, where the home side fired a cutout ball to Harlyn Saunoa<\/a>, who went in untouched. Simpson added the conversion from the sideline to take the lead, 14-12.<\/p>\n

Leicester\u2019s brother, Tima, who started on the left-wing for the Blues, then picked up the ball and crossed in the corner after the Crusaders made an unforced error deep inside their own half.<\/p>\n

Simpson continued his fine-form off the boot, converting the try to extend the lead to 21-12.<\/p>\n

Penney\u2019s side then immediately hit back through Fainga\u2019anuku again, almost a carbon copy of his first. 21-19 to the Blues, after 32 minutes.<\/p>\n

The high-scoring first half continued with a couple of minutes left, with Leo Gordon<\/a> finishing off some brilliant attacking play by the Blues to go in for his first try of the afternoon.<\/p>\n

In his last touch of the afternoon, Simpson converted from out in front, taking the Blues to a 28-19 lead at halftime.<\/p>\n

The home side we\u2019re quick to extend their nine-point lead in the second half, with Joshua Fusitu\u2019a going over almost immediately.<\/p>\n

The All Black XV prop was too big, too strong, close to the line. Stephen Perofeta<\/a> had no trouble converting the try from under the posts, giving the Blues a 35-19 lead.<\/p>\n

A swift backline move off the back of two solid Blues scrums, saw the home side in for all money, before a low pass from Zarn Sullivan<\/a> bombed a certain Cole Forbes<\/a> try.<\/p>\n

The next 15 minutes passed without any points, before an accurate left-to-right long ball from Perofeta put AJ Lam<\/a> in for his first try. Perofeta missed the conversion from 15 meters in from the sideline, keeping the score at 40-19.<\/p>\n

Penney\u2019s side then scored with a late try of their own, with Oli Mathis<\/a> playing a huge part.<\/p>\n

Mathis was in support before he passed the ball on the inside to Kurtis Macdonald, who beat two defenders close to the line.<\/p>\n

The Blues then finished proceedings with a Perofeta try close to the final hooter, bundling over the line late on.<\/p>\n

FT: 45-24 to the Blues at Onewa Domain.<\/p>\n

The Crusaders open their Super Rugby Pacific campaign next Friday night against the Highlanders<\/a> in Dunedin.<\/p>\n

Cotter\u2019s Blues will host the Chiefs<\/a> on Saturday evening at Eden Park, the exact same fixture from round one in 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Super Rugby Pacific pre-season for 2026 has concluded for both the Blues and the Crusaders at Onewa…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":271528,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-271527","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}