The Blues are the 2026 Sky Super Rugby Aupiki champions, claiming a dramatic 28 – 21 victory over Matat\u016b with a match-winning try in the 80th minute at One New Zealand Stadium in Christchurch.<\/p>\n
Played in front of over 10,000 fans, the Grand Final was an arm wrestle from start to finish, with neither side able to break clear in a fiercely contested decider.<\/p>\n
With the scores locked at 21-21 after Georgia Ponsonby crossed the try line for Matat\u016b in the 78th minute, the Grand Final appeared destined for extra time. But Blues winger Katelynn Vahaakolo had the final say, finishing in the closing moments to seal the title and spark celebrations for the visitors.<\/p>\n
Blues Captain, Maiakawanakaulani Roos was ecstatic with the Blues third consecutive Sky Super Rugby Aupiki title. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI am so proud of the team, we had our backs against the wall. Never had a doubt, we supported each other and had belief we could do it with nothing to lose.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n
Player of the Match went to Blues hooker Atlanta Lolohea, who capped an outstanding season with another influential performance. Lolohea crossed for the opening try, scored a second in the 70th minute and was a relentless presence throughout the entire Grand Final.<\/p>\n
The Blues will head across the Tasman for the 2026 Women\u2019s Super Rugby Championship, where they will face the Super Rugby W champions NSW Waratahs on Saturday\u202f1 August at 7.30pm (NZT) in Sydney. Fans can tune in live on Sky Sport.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Blues are the 2026 Sky Super Rugby Aupiki champions, claiming a dramatic 28 – 21 victory over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":543214,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[111,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-543213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543213","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=543213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543213\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/543214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=543213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=543213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=543213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}