Blues hold off Force, Chiefs edge Reds

The Blues have narrowly defeated the Western Force 22-18, despite not scoring after the 29th minute.

The Force started the match brightly, with In-form winger Manasa Mataele racing in for the first try of the match in the eighth minute.

The free-flowing scoring continued in the early stages, with Blues fly-half and All Blacks star Beauden Barrett narrowing the margin to five with a straightforward penalty goal in the 12th minute.

The Blues hit the front in the 19th minute courtesy of a close-range Sam Darry try.

Akira Ioane stormed over in the 21st minute, with AJ Lam adding a third try in the 29th minute, as the Blues took a 22-8 lead into half time.

The second half deadlock was broken in the 62nd minute, with Force lock Jeremy Thrush driving over the line to bring the scores to 12-22.

A vocal Force crowd rose to their feet as the momentum swung their way, Bo Abra crossing over for his first ever Super Rugby try to set up a dramatic final five minutes.

Despite a wave of attacks on the Blues defence with 26 phases after the siren, the Force comeback wasn’t to be, as the reigning champions claimed a four-point win.

The Blues move to first on the ladder with the victory, and extend their unbeaten run to nine matches.

Chiefs outlast the Reds

The Chiefs have beaten the Queensland Reds 27-25 at Suncorp Stadium in Round 11 of Super Rugby Pacific.

Pita Sowakula carries the ball for the Chiefs in Brisbane
Photo: AAP / www.photosport.nz

The sides were locked 13-all at the half-time break, before the Chiefs charged to the lead courtesy of multiple yellow cards to the hosts.

Harry Wilson had the first try of the game in the 31st minute, the number-eight burrowing his way through a mess of Chiefs defenders to score on the back of dominant Queensland scrum in the previous phases.

A Cortez Ratima try six-minutes after the siren evened the ledger again at the half-time break, the Chiefs defying a passage of dogged Reds defence to score their first try of the night.

Samisoni Taukei’aho crossed early in the second stanza for the Chiefs, with Harry Wilson shown a yellow card in the same sequence to reduce Queensland to 14-men.

Despite their disadvantage it was Queensland who were next to score, skipper Tate McDermott scooping up a loose ball and charging 40-metres downfield before linking with Josh Flook on his outside who found the line close to the right-hand corner.

Jock Campbell was yellow-carded in the 62nd minute for a deliberate knock down and the Chiefs quickly capitalised with a try to Pita Sowakula.

A red card to Samipeni Finau saw the Chiefs reduced to 14-men for the final four-minutes of play, giving Hunter Paisami the opportunity to slice through the visitor’s defence for Queensland’s third try of the night.

Creighton’s conversion put the Reds within touching distance at 27-25 with just three-minutes remaining.

Queensland were unable to steal an unlikely win in the dying minutes, the visitors holding on for their seventh win of the season.

RNZ