{"id":12800,"date":"2025-02-24T06:00:54","date_gmt":"2025-02-23T17:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=12800"},"modified":"2025-02-24T06:00:54","modified_gmt":"2025-02-23T17:00:54","slug":"super-rugby-pacific-round-up-somehow-it-got-even-better","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=12800","title":{"rendered":"Super Rugby Pacific round up: Somehow, it got even better"},"content":{"rendered":"

Super Rugby Pacific had a hard act to follow after the stunning first round, but somehow it delivered another excellent weekend.<\/p>\n

The competition has had many detractors over the years, a lot of the criticism fair too, but really right now if you’re still complaining that says more about you than anything else. Every game was again highly entertaining, from the Chiefs’ win on Friday to the Force’s upset 45-42 victory over the Brumbies.<\/p>\n

So it’s fair to say an awful lot of people would’ve been very impressed, all except Blues fans that is, who are still trying to process just how the defending champs managed to\u00a0lose 29-21<\/a>\u00a0to an under-manned Highlanders side in Dunedin. There was so much wrong about the Blues’ performance last weekend against the Chiefs, but they managed to completely outdo themselves this time around with a couple of shocking decisions at the back end of the game.<\/p>\n

\"Fans<\/p>\n

Fans celebrate during the Highlanders vs Blues Super Rugby Pacific at Forsyth Barr Stadium, Dunedin.\u00a0<\/span>Photo:\u00a0Derek Morrison\/Photosport<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The Highlanders had lost Saula Mau’u and Ethan de Groot to injury, then Daniel Lienert-Brown to an upgraded red card, which meant they still had to pack eight players in a depowered scrum and hand the Blues a two-man overlap. So a scrum should’ve been the only option for the Blues when they were awarded a couple of penalties five metres out from the line, however they took two lineouts which were promptly lost due to Fabian Holland having clearly figured out their calls.<\/p>\n

Even if Ricky Riccitelli had muscled over for a lineout drive try earlier, surely a simple draw and pass with almost the entire width of the field open was the higher percentage play.<\/p>\n

\"Finn<\/p>\n

Finn Hurley of the Highlanders scores.\u00a0<\/span>Photo:\u00a0Steve McArthur\/www.photosport.nz<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Then there was just the overwhelming lack of intensity the Blues showed after a really good start. While Beauden Barrett scored a really nice try, he also ended up on the other side of the highlight reel when his two aimless kicks resulted in Finn Hurley’s two excellent tries. Rieko Ioane and Caleb Clarke were barely involved. Hoskins Sotutu, last year’s standout performer, was nullified by a fired up Highlanders’ defensive effort.<\/p>\n

Really though, you won’t find a better captain’s knock at the business end than Timoci Tavatavanawai’s effort for the home side. He put in a pretty good case for being considered for the loose forwards as well, with several key turnovers that swung the game the home side’s way.<\/p>\n

There’s still a long way to go. The Blues have plenty of time to turn it round and the Highlanders can’t afford any injuries or suspensions at all, let alone a bunch in the same position. It’s certainly a win for the smaller men in professional rugby though – Hurley is listed at 75kgs, for context that makes him smaller than a lot of the Year Eight students turning out for Auckland high school rugby this season.<\/p>\n

rnz<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Super Rugby Pacific had a hard act to follow after the stunning first round, but somehow it delivered another excellent weekend. The competition has had many detractors over the years, a lot of the criticism fair too, but really right now if you’re still complaining that says more about you than anything else. Every game […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":12801,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12800"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12800\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12802,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12800\/revisions\/12802"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}