The Blues keep their Super Rugby title defense alive, edging the Chiefs 20-19 with a last-gasp try
HAMILTON, New Zealand (AP) — The Blues have kept their defense of the Super Rugby title alive, beating the top-seeded Chiefs 20-19 Saturday with a try three minutes after the fulltime siren to advance to next week's semifinals.
Replacement lock Josh Beehre dived over after the Blues had trailed 19-13 and had relentlessly battered the Chiefs' goalline through the last moments of the match.
Beauden Barrett kicked the conversion to give the Auckland-based Blues their one-point advantage, capping a gripping contest with Damian McKenzie, his rival for the All Blacks' flyhalf jersey.
Under the rules of the new playoffs system, the Chiefs will also advance to the semifinals as the highest-ranked loser. The Crusaders will play the Blues next weekend while the Chiefs will play the winner of the playoff later Saturday between the ACT Brumbies and Wellington-based Hurricanes.
The late loss was an upset as the Chiefs beat the Blues twice during the regular season and had led throughout Saturday's match, looking as if they would avenge their 41-10 loss to the Blues in last year's final.
McKenzie had kicked the Chiefs to a 12-6 lead in an exchange of penalties with Barrett before center Daniel Rona scored the first try of the match in the 59th minute.
That made the lead 19-6 but the Blues replied quickly with a try to hooker Kurt Eklund.
In a match of ferocious defenses, the Chiefs looked like holding on until the Blues worked the ball to Beehre who scored on the last play of the match which lived up to its billing as the Battle of the Bombays, for the range of hills which separates the two teams.
'I thought we had it in the bag,' Chiefs' Tupou Vaa'i said. 'I guess footy's a strange game at times. You can be on a high and it can humble you real quick.'
As the sixth seeds going into the first round of playoffs, the Blues season would have been over and their title defense at an end if they had been beaten Saturday. Instead, they found a way to win in the most adverse of circumstances.
The Chiefs had dominated the first half with almost 80% of territory. While the game had evened up in the second half, the Blues struggled to break down the Chiefs' defense.
'There were a whole lot of ups and downs throughout our season, just to culminate in that last try,' Blues captain Patrick Tuipulotu said.
'There's another week for us but we've got to enjoy that kind of moment.'
___
AP rugby: https://apnews.com/hub/rugby
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