Latest news with #AucklandBlues
CNA
9 hours ago
- Business
- CNA
Hurricanes shatter Moana dreams and send Blues into Super Rugby playoffs
SYDNEY :The Wellington Hurricanes shattered Moana Pasifika's dreams of a maiden Super Rugby Pacific playoff campaign with a crushing 64-12 victory on Saturday that sent the defending champion Auckland Blues into next week's quarter-finals instead. The Hurricanes cemented fourth place in the final standings and will travel to Canberra next Saturday to play the ACT Brumbies, while the Blues, who earlier beat the New South Wales Waratahs 46-6, will visit the table-topping Waikato Chiefs. In the other playoff, the 12-times champion Canterbury Crusaders will host Queensland Reds, who concluded the regular season on Saturday night with a 52-7 win over Fijian Drua on the back of four first-half tries from winger Lachie Anderson. Moana had hoped to be there too on the back of a breakout season but even redoubtable skipper Ardie Savea was unable to inspire them to the bonus-point victory they needed to edge out the Blues and claim the sixth and last playoff spot. Number eight Semisi Tupou Ta'eiloa gave Moana the perfect start at Wellington Stadium with a try after six minutes but Hurricanes were 14-7 up before a quarter of an hour had expired. Hooker Jacob Devery went over on the back of a rolling maul before flanker Devan Flanders showed his footballing skills with a chip and chase for the second try. Savea grabbed a couple of turnovers but it only delayed the inevitable as Hurricanes scrumhalf Cam Roigard went over from an intercept and centre Peter Umaga-Jensen rampaged through the Moana defence to give the home side a 28-7 halftime lead. Umaga-Jensen barged over for his second try 10 minutes after the break before Raymond Tuputupu, Pouri Rakete-Stones, Billy Proctor, Ereatara Enari and Tjay Clarke completed the 10-try rout. "Really pleasing, not only that we got the result, but that we played the way we did going into the finals," said Hurricanes co-captain Du'Plessis Kirifi. "From next week on, you've got to just start again. Start again and go hard." Savea, who scored a consolation try against his old team in the 65th minute off a catch-and-drive, expressed his pride in what Moana had achieved this year. "We're not satisfied," he said. "Our goal was to win the thing and make top six, but that wasn't meant to be." The Blues earlier ended the slender post-season hopes of the Waratahs by running in seven tries in a bonus-point victory at Eden Park to extend their winning streak over the Sydney-based club to 11 matches. Centre Rieko Ioane scored a hat-trick and winger Mark Tele'a two tries on the back of an attack skilfully marshalled by their fellow All Black Beauden Barrett as the Blues gave the Waratahs a lesson in clinical finishing. "We just wanted to play shackle-free and have some fun and I think we did that tonight," said Ioane, who joined Doug Howlett as the Blues' all time leading try-scorer with 55. "We knew how crucial the bonus point was, and to hold them to no tries was awesome." On Friday, the Chiefs locked up top spot in the standings and home advantage throughout the playoffs with a 41-21 victory over the Otago Highlanders and the Crusaders beat the Brumbies 33-31 to win the shootout for second.
Reuters
11 hours ago
- Business
- Reuters
Hurricanes shatter Moana dreams and send Blues into Super Rugby playoffs
SYDNEY, May 31 (Reuters) - The Wellington Hurricanes shattered Moana Pasifika's dreams of a maiden Super Rugby Pacific playoff campaign with a crushing 64-12 victory on Saturday that sent the defending champion Auckland Blues into next week's quarter-finals instead. The Hurricanes cemented fourth place in the final standings and will travel to Canberra next Saturday to play the ACT Brumbies, while the Blues, who earlier beat the New South Wales Waratahs 46-6, will visit the table-topping Waikato Chiefs. In the other opening-round playoff, the 12-times champion Canterbury Crusaders will host the Queensland Reds, who conclude the regular season fixtures when they take on the Fijian Drua in Brisbane later on Saturday. Moana had hoped to be there too on the back of a breakout season but even redoubtable skipper Ardie Savea was unable to inspire them to the bonus-point victory they needed to edge out the Blues and claim the sixth and last playoff spot. Number eight Semisi Tupou Ta'eiloa gave Moana the perfect start at Wellington Stadium with a try after six minutes but Hurricanes were 14-7 up before a quarter of an hour had expired. Hooker Jacob Devery went over on the back of a rolling maul before flanker Devan Flanders showed his footballing skills with a chip and chase for the second try. Savea grabbed a couple of turnovers but it only delayed the inevitable as Hurricanes scrumhalf Cam Roigard went over from an intercept and centre Peter Umaga-Jensen rampaged through the Moana defence to give the home side a 28-7 halftime lead. Umaga-Jensen barged over for his second try 10 minutes after the break before Raymond Tuputupu, Pouri Rakete-Stones, Billy Proctor, Ereatara Enari and Tjay Clarke completed the 10-try rout. "Really pleasing, not only that we got the result, but that we played the way we did going into the finals," said Hurricanes co-captain Du'Plessis Kirifi. "From next week on, you've got to just start again. Start again and go hard." Savea, who scored a consolation try against his old team in the 65th minute off a catch-and-drive, expressed his pride in what Moana had achieved this year. "We're not satisfied," he said. "Our goal was to win the thing and make top six, but that wasn't meant to be." The Blues earlier ended the slender post-season hopes of the Waratahs by running in seven tries in a bonus-point victory at Eden Park to extend their winning streak over the Sydney-based club to 11 matches. Centre Rieko Ioane scored a hat-trick and winger Mark Tele'a two tries on the back of an attack skilfully marshalled by their fellow All Black Beauden Barrett as the Blues gave the Waratahs a lesson in clinical finishing. "We just wanted to play shackle-free and have some fun and I think we did that tonight," said Ioane, who joined Doug Howlett as the Blues' all time leading try-scorer with 55. "We knew how crucial the bonus point was, and to hold them to no tries was awesome." On Friday, the Chiefs locked up top spot in the standings and home advantage throughout the playoffs with a 41-21 victory over the Otago Highlanders and the Crusaders beat the Brumbies 33-31 to win the shootout for second.
Reuters
3 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
Blues on the edge as Super Rugby playoff race goes down to the wire
SYDNEY, May 29 (Reuters) - The most competitive Super Rugby season for many years goes down to the wire this weekend when three teams, including the defending champion Auckland Blues, battle it out for the last remaining playoff spot. The final order of the top three in the standings will only be decided on Friday night when the table-topping Waikato Chiefs visit the Otago Highlanders and the Canterbury Crusaders and ACT Brumbies, who are second and third, clash in Canberra. The top two are guaranteed home advantage in the first two weeks of the knockouts and table positions carry extra importance this year with the highest-ranked losers in the first playoff round going through to the semi-finals. The Brumbies host the 12-times champion Crusaders knowing that victory would make them the first Australian team to finish in the top two since 2015 and could still secure them top spot if the Chiefs slip up against the bottom-ranked Highlanders. "We know that if we can finish top two ... it would put you in a better position to get to the final," said Brumbies coach Stephen Larkham, who has overseen semi-final exits on the road in the last two seasons. "The Crusaders are very dangerous with their scrum and their maul. They're kind of what you'd expect to see from teams at top of the competition, good all round." Wallabies flyhalf Noah Lolesio returns from injury to run the Brumbies backline but crucially they will be without their totemic tighthead prop Allan Alaalatoa because of a calf injury. The Wellington Hurricanes and Queensland Reds in fourth and fifth are already assured of post-season play, leaving Moana Pasifika and the New South Wales Waratahs vying with the Blues for the last place. The Blues have improved since their poor start to the season but they will need to beat the Waratahs in Saturday's early game and hope the Hurricanes down Moana later in the day to sneak into the playoffs. Moana, who are level on points with the Blues, were thrashed 85-7 by the Chiefs last week and face another in-form New Zealand team in the Hurricanes, who are unbeaten in their last five games. Ardie Savea, the Moana skipper, and his brother Julian, who plays at inside centre, can be assured of putting in whole-hearted efforts against their former club as they look for another first in what has been the team's breakout season. A bonus point win in Wellington will earn Moana the playoff spot because they will have more wins than the Blues, the first of the tiebreak criteria. The Waratahs, who trail the Blues and Moana by two points, have the most daunting path to the playoffs, not least because they have won only once at Auckland's Eden Park in the 30 seasons of Super Rugby.
Reuters
7 days ago
- Sport
- Reuters
McKellar targets smart approach to Blues clash after Waratahs keep season alive
May 25 (Reuters) - Coach Dan McKellar will take his New South Wales Waratahs to New Zealand next week to face Super Rugby Pacific champions Auckland Blues looking to unearth a path to victory in a must-win clash for both sides. The Waratahs kept their campaign alive on Saturday with a 22-17 win over the Western Force in Super Point extra time as McKellar's team moved to within two points of sixth-placed Moana Pasifika with one round left in the regular season. "You've just got to go over there and be tactically really smart with how you play," McKellar said after wing Darby Lancaster's 90th minute try in Perth. "They're a quality side and they've got threats across the park, so if you want to try and beat them at their game you'll come second best. "So we've got to be smart about how we approach it as a coaching group to give the boys the best chance to go over there and achieve something pretty special." The teams meet on Saturday with both outside the playoff positions, the Blues in seventh on 28 points and the Waratahs two points behind in eighth. The Waratahs would need to win and for sixth-placed Moana to lose against the Wellington Hurricanes to qualify for the playoffs while a bonus point victory could be enough for the Blues to climb into sixth even if Moana win. McKellar's team maintained their hopes by the narrowest of margins in the rain at Perth Rectangular Stadium as both the Waratahs and the Force squandered opportunities to lock in the win as time ticked down. Lancaster, however, secured victory with a spectacular dive into the corner in the 10th minute of extra-time to give McKellar and his players a much-needed boost after a run of poor results. "It's massive," McKellar said. "We've had a rough few weeks. You feel for the players. "Our reviews are always honest, and they have to be because we want to get better, but their attitude has been excellent and we bounced back and we can have a couple of quiet beers and celebrate a good win. "I'm sure it wasn't pretty, it won't go down as a classic but it's four points in the bank and we're still alive."
NZ Herald
22-05-2025
- Sport
- NZ Herald
On the Up: Halberg Foundation launch ‘Make Play Possible' to help kids with disabilities play sport
But the costs are making it more difficult for people to participate, and Halberg Foundation chief executive Tom Smith is desperate to change that. ' Sir Murray said that everyone should have the opportunity to play sport,' said Smith. 'We're still failing them because there's still thousands of young people out there that just aren't getting the opportunity to participate in sport. 'If you're not actively participating in sport or you're not part of a team or a group of people, you're going to lack self-confidence. These opportunities that people miss in sport, they lead to lack of ... opportunities in life.' Isabel Venter is an example of a child who has benefited from the Halberg Activity Fund grant. She was born with an upper limb difference and, with the support of Halberg, she managed to participate in the Games and start riding lessons. 'I really like being around the horses,' said Isabel. 'It makes me feel happy, calm and relaxed. When I first started I was quite weak and couldn't do everything I wanted to, but I'm getting stronger. 'I really enjoyed Halberg Games because I could compete with other people with the same limb difference as me. 'My favourite part was the rock climbing because it exercises both of my arms. I loved the experience, and I hope I can go again.' Despite all that, Smith is pleased to see the number of kids benefiting from taking part in events like the Halberg Games, which is proving to be a stepping stone to further success. He highlights the success of wheelchair racers Jaden Movold and Sarah James, who have benefited from participating. 'It's also about the kids coming to the Halberg Games for the very first time,' said Smith. 'These are children who often aren't picked for Aims Games or rep teams. They're the ones left behind in class when their peers get to put on the Auckland Blues jersey or the green of Manawatu. 'They're left out, and for them, the Halberg Games might be the first time they're away from home without their parents. 'It could be the first time they're managing their own medication, and it becomes a real coming-of-age experience. 'I always say to people that we talk about creating moments of joy, but the finish line at the Halberg Games is just this amazing place of humanity.'
