Late drama as Blues come from behind to see off Lions

Blues 22 Lions 16

The Lions take the trek to Christchurch on Thursday for Saturday’s meeting with the unbeaten, table topping Crusaders, but their tour has been seriously derailed by a defeat to the Blues that was eminently avoidable.

This, after all, was the fifth and weakest link in the New Zealand chain of Super Rugby franchises, albeit these things are relative. To the delight of most in the sodden 40,639 crowd, the Blues claimed more of the big moments on the night, with the Bristol-bound Steven Luatua having an enormous game at number eight, while Sonny Bill Williams and Reiko Ioane were constant thorns in the Lions side.

The Lions scrum and lineout both went well, indeed the scrum yielded them three points and the lineout maul seven, but they were left to chase the game for long stretches, and despite keeping their attacking shape impressively through the phases, they lacked the penetrative pace and offloading which the Blues possessed; and most tellingly came up with near the end.

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CJ Stander and Robbie Henshaw had big carrying games, and Jack Nowell was typically industrious off the wing, but missed a couple of tackles. Stander also led the tackle count and was ably supported by Jack McGrath, who had a good game, as well as Courtney Lawes.

It was a nice change to be supporting a team with Maro Itoje in it, although ultimately his enthusiasm and energy got the better of him as he made the initial mistake in the defensive line which allowed Sonny Bill Williams to create the match-winning try for the Blues’ speedy replacement outhalf, Ihaia West. Williams had earlier been awarded a try with the final play of the first half by the TMO Marius Jonker – a try which looked highly questionable.

The one late alteration to either side was the withdrawal of Blues lock Patrick Tuipulotu from the bench after the 24-year-old lock turned up late for training yesterday. Not only has this denied him the chance of a lifetime, but has imperilled his chances of being picked in Steve Hansen’s squad – which is being announced tomorrow – for the forthcoming games against Samoa and the Lions. Tuipulotu’s place on the bench was taken by Jimmy Tupou.

After a pleasant, mostly sunny day, a heavy downpour preceded the pre-match pageantry and kick-off. There was a curious incident as the teams assembled before the Blues’ first haka in readiness for their first encounter with the Lions. Before this, there was the amusing sight of Kyle Sinkler running from the Lions huddle to obtain a pair of shorts from Paddy ‘Rala’ O’Reilly and race back infield to give them to Rhys Webb.

The Lions were intent from the off to work back and counter attack, the busy Nowell running back Leigh Halfpenny’s take and then trucking up the recycle before Williams poached over Haskell to earn a relieving penalty. Then, when Stander trucked up line-out ball, Williams ripped it from him in the tackle.

The Blues almost had a laughable breakaway second try by Reiko Ioane before recourse to the video replays confirmed, as had been clear all along, that Ofa Tu’ungafasi had made no attempt to retreat before then tackling Dan Biggar from an offside position. Biggar nonetheless had to depart for a HIA, to be replaced by Sexton, and didn’t return.

However, the Blues then took the lead with one of the most fortuitous and, frankly, dodgiest tries you could ever wish to see. The penalty by Perofeta rebounded off the upright and the ball appeared to come forward off TJ Faiane before Willaims claimed the touchdown.

After recourse to the TMO and constant replays, insomuch as one could be clear about anything, the ball seemed to deflect into the Lions’ in-goal area off both Jack Nowell and Faiane. But the TMO deemed the ball had only been “handled by red” before Williams just beat Stander and Sexton to the touchdown. Quite how Jonker could be sure the ball only came off Nowell, and not at all off Faiane, was hard to credit. But the conversion by Perofeta gave the Blues a 12-10 interval lead.

Stephen Perofeta, the 20-year-old outhalf makng his first start for the Blues, was soon unveiling his impressive bag of tricks, first crosskicking off a scrum for Matt Duffie and then, after Charlie Faumuina stood in at first receiver and pulled the ball back (Haskell being pulled in) for Perofeta, Perofeta skip-passed to Ioana as Nowell was sucked in to score with a typically blistering finish in the corner.

The Lions responded strongly. Another counter by Halfpennhy led to another sustsained attack which ended with Perofeta doing enough to drag Jared Payne’s left knee into touch before grounding by the corner flag.

Impressive juggling by Itoje, and a charge by Haskell, led to a penalty which the Lions kicked to the corner from the 22. The first drive off Itoje’s take was pulled down, the second off another Itoje take and some sustained leg-pumping in the drive was rewarded with Stander’s touchdown. Halfpenny converted for the lead and tagged on a penalty after Faumuina buckled again at scrum time.

However, needless penalties were not helping the Lions’ cause, such as Courtney Lawes grappling Akira Ioane in the air after a lineout take and Rhys Webb blatantly fringing at a ruck.

The Lions had a reprieve at the start of the second half in what was almost a carbon copy of Payne’s touchdown being ruled out when Nowell did enough to drag Ioane’s left foot onto the touchline before grounding the ball.

Payne soon hobbled off in clear distress due, it seemed, to a recurrence of the calf issue that had sidelined him for eight weeks and had ruled him out of the tour opener.

Sexton crosskicked with a penalty advantage for collapsing a maul, but Liam Williams grappled Duffie in the air and so the penalty was reversed in favour of the Blues. Nothing was going the Lions’ way, but they weren’t helping themselves.

To compound this, when Duffie and Williams contested a kick from West, despite Duffie over-running the ball slightly, the TMO and referee decreed that Williams had grappled Duffie in the air and, as it was his second infringement of this nature just seconds after the first, binned the Welsh winger.

The Lions were put back on the front foot thanks to an adroit, one-handed take of a bouncing ball by Itoje after Nowell had chased and contested a box kick by Webb. The tourists kept their shape through the phases before Webb sniped, Joe Marler supported well, and Augustine Pulu was pinged for not releasing. About time too.

Halfpenny’s penalty trimmed the lead to 15-13 and meant the Lions had seen out the 10 minutes in which they were reduced to 14 by three points to nil. Soon after a crooked throw by Ken Owens he was pulled off, to be replaced by Rory Best. The ensuring scrum penalty enabled Halfpenny to kick the Lions in front.

When Justin Tipuric, Lawes and Henshaw engineered a choke tackle and turnover, a pumped Maro Itoje again led the celebrations with Liam Williams. But moments later Itoje shot out of the line looking for a big hit as Steven Luatua slipped the ball out of his right arm to release Sonny Bill Williams through the ensuing gap.

He made a big break before offloading to West, who veered inside Sexton and rounded Halfpenny at speed without being touched to score under the posts and add the conversion.

The Lions came knocking once more, Nowell sniping off a sustained attack and Joe Marler picking and going before Pascal Gauzere harshly pinged Itoje for going off his feet. Gauzere at least did likewise to the Blues when they sought to run the clock down, but after Sexton went to the corner, Best over threw. And that was that.

Scoring sequence: 7 mins R Ioane try, 0-5; 17 mins Stander try, Halfpenny con 5-7; 25 mins Halfpenny pen 5-10; 40 (+3 mins) Williams try, Perofeta con 12-10; (half-time 12-10); 53 mins West pen 15-10; 68 mins Halfpenny pen 15-13; 71 mins Halfpenny pen, 15-16; 74 mins West try and con 22-16.

AUCKLAND BLUES: Michael Collins; Matt Duffie, George Moala, Sonny Bill Williams, Rieko Ioane; Stephen Perofeta, Augustine Pulu; Ofa Tu'ungafasi, James Parsons (capt), Charlie Faumuina, Gerard Cowley-Tuioti, Scott Scrafton, Akira Ioane, Blake Gibson, Steven Luatua.

Replacements: TJ Faiane for Duffie (40+2 mins to half-time) and for Moala (67 mins), Ihaia West for Perofeta (53 mins), Alex Hodgman for Tu’ungafasi, Sione Mafileo for Faumuina, Jimmy Tupou for Cowley-Tuioti (all 57 mins), Kara Pryor for Gibson (67 mins), Hame Faiva for Parsons, Sam Nock for Pulu (both 71 mins).

BRITISH & IRISH LIONS: Leigh Halfpenny; (Toulon, Wales); Jack Nowell (Exeter Chiefs, England), Jared Payne (Ulster, Ireland), (Robbie Henshaw (Leinster, Ireland), Elliot Daly (Wasps, England); Dan Biggar (Ospreys, Wales), Rhys Webb (Ospreys, Wales); Jack McGrath (Leinster, Ireland), Ken Owens (Capt, Scarlets, Wales), Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers, England), Maro Itoje (Saracens, England), Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints, England), James Haskell (Wasps, England), Justin Tipuric (Ospreys, Wales), CJ Stander (Munster, Ireland).

Replacements: Johnny Sexton (Leinster, Ireland) for Biggar (36 mins), Liam Williams (Scarlets, Wales) for Payne (48 mins), Joe Marler (Harlequins, England) for McGrath, Peter O’Mahony (Munster, Ireland) for Haskell (54 mins), Kyle Sinckler (Harlequins, England) for Cole (55 mins), Rory Best (Ulster, Ireland) for Owens (69 mins), Iain Henderson (Ulster, Ireland) for Lawes, Greig Laidlaw (Gloucester, Scotland) for Webb (both 76 mins).

Sin-binned: Liam Williams (57-67 mins).

Referee: Pascal Gauzere (France).