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 might 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 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","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":398886,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[33339,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-398885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-blues","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398885","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=398885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398885\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}