Social Media Spat: Blues And Moana Beef Online After Play-Off Spots Are Set

Scoop

2 days ago

Analysis - It's fair to say that the while the final regular season round was primed to throw a cat amongst the pigeons, it ended up being more a showcase of ruthlessness. Friday night saw the Chiefs have no mercy, the Blues gave their most complete performance of the year to set up their play-off chance, which was confirmed by a now scarily impressive Hurricanes side.
All of this came at the expense of the Highlanders' pride, the Waratahs' hopes and both of those plus some social media credibility for Moana Pasifika.
Crusaders get the calls
It's worth pointing out up front the Crusaders were fortunate in their they certainly put in enough tough defence to deserve their 33-31 win over the Brumbies. But plenty of scrutiny has come in following the officiating crew missing a pretty clear knock on from Sevu Reece in the lead up to George Bell's match winning try.
It says a lot about rugby's issues that since the ref got it wrong, the TMO was right in the end for not referring back to it after Bell's try since the ball had been in touch since. It also isn't a great look that the entire refereeing crew were New Zealanders, despite the game taking place in Canberra.
Blues and Moana beef online
While the Blues' performance in their 46-6 win over the Waratahs was about as close as they've come to last year's campaign, the reward they get is a trip down the road to face the Chiefs. It's pretty easy to think the Blues have simply put off their holidays for a week, given that no team outside the regular season-ending top four has ever won any iteration of Super Rugby.
But it's also worth remembering the last time they played in Hamilton, because that was the closest by far anyone's come to beating the Chiefs at home this season.
However, the fact that Rieko Ioane scored a hat trick meant that we didn't have to wait long for him to jump on Instagram, where he shared a post noting that he's now equal first on the Blues all time try scoring list. On it was the not so subtle message that he's 'Heard the noise…Whatcha sayin?'.
Just to make it even more spicy, the Blues closed out their online beef with Moana Pasifika (for now) by getting a last and no doubt very satisfying laugh. However, that didn't stop Moana captain Ardie Savea throwing a bit of passive-aggressive shade back at them, which drew a number of responses from Blues players and All Black teammates.
Did Moana climax too early
Moana's win over the Blues a fortnight ago was hailed as the performance of the season, given its historic nature and Ardie Savea's superhuman effort on the field from start to finish. But the virtual tickertape parade was jumping the gun a bit - in the two games since, they've conceded 149 points, were bounced from the play-offs by a Hurricanes team hell bent on revenge and suffered the aforementioned social media butthurt.
Did Moana dine out a bit much on their success and suffer a bit? It certainly appears so, while neither team wanted to admit it up front, there was some serious feeling in the Blues fixture on and off the field. Perhaps Moana felt like the point they needed to prove this year was achieved that night.
If so, then that's a pretty harsh lesson they've just learned because the losses to the Chiefs and Hurricanes rank among the worst in a short history that includes plenty of hidings.
Hurricane warning
Their inclement form in the first half of the season has meant that the Canes have flown under the radar a bit, but now nothing can hide the fact that they've won their last five games in a row. That's more than anyone else and while they have to travel to face the Brumbies in Canberra next weekend, they won there four weeks ago.
Don't say it too loud but it's all starting to feel quite similar to 2016, when an unheralded group under a second year coach managed to overcome a rough start to the year to go on and win the whole thing.