Latest news with #Blues'
1News
4 hours ago
- Sport
- 1News
Hurricanes end Moana Pasifika's fairytale season
Moana Pasifika's fairytale season has come to an abrupt end at the hands of the Hurricanes. Needing a bonus-point win to progress to the playoffs for the first time, the task proved too tall for Moana, who fell to a ruthless 'Canes outfit 64-12 on Saturday. The home side were clinical across the park, running in 10 tries at the 'Caketin' to send Moana Pasifika crashing out of the competition, while keeping the Blues' faint hopes of a title defence alive. Ardie Savea did not have a happy homecoming in his first return to the region since his move to Moana Pasifika. Despite his best efforts, with several trademark turnovers and a try, Moana barely fired a shot in their final outing of the season. Things started positively for the visitors, with Solomon Alaimalo plucking an intercept and linking with Semisi Tupou Ta'eiloa to score under the sticks. ADVERTISEMENT That would be as good as it got in the first 40 for Moana, who conceded four tries before the break, including two individual stunners. First, Devan Flanders took a wide ball on the wing and sent an audacious chip over the top, gathering the perfect bounce and strolling over. Then, just on the break, Peter Umaga-Jensen took a wayward clearing kick on halfway and sliced Moana Pasifika open, shrugging off several would-be tacklers on his way to a brilliant solo try. The Hurricanes continued to pour on the points after oranges, Umaga-Jensen with another jinking run, powering past two tacklers to bag his brace. Replacement front rowers Raymond Tuputupu and Pouri Rakete-Stones both barged their way over the chalk to extend the advantage, with Matt Proctor showing his class, as he weaved around the defence to put his side into the 50s. Former Moana Pasifika halfback Ere Enari sneaked his way over from the base to rub more salt in the wound, while debutant Tjay Clarke closed things out with a 10th Hurricanes try.
Time of India
a day ago
- Sport
- Time of India
Cam Fowler's defensive impact fueled St Louis Blues' playoff push and could influence his contract extension
Cam Fowler's impact could define Blues' defensive future (Image via: Getty Images) The St. Louis Blues gained a powerful defensive weapon when they acquired Cam Fowler from the Anaheim Ducks. Fowler's veteran presence and impressive play helped transform the Blues' blue line, fueling their push into the 2023 NHL playoffs. As Fowler enters the final year of his contract, the team faces a crucial decision that could shape their defensive future. Cam Fowler's key role in the Blues' defense and playoff run When St. Louis acquired Cam Fowler from Anaheim in February 2023, they added a seasoned defenseman who immediately made a significant impact. Fowler quickly became a key figure on the Blues' blue line, showcasing strong defensive skills while also contributing offensively. Over 51 regular-season games with St. Louis, he tallied 36 points and maintained an impressive plus-19 rating, providing much-needed stability to a previously inconsistent defensive corps. Fowler's influence didn't stop there. In the 2023 NHL playoffs, he emerged as a leading playmaker for the Blues, recording eight assists and a total of 10 points in just seven games. His role on the top defensive pairing and power play unit proved critical, giving the Blues a competitive edge in high-pressure situations. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Giao dịch vàng CFDs với sàn môi giới tin cậy IC Markets Tìm hiểu thêm Undo This performance solidified Fowler's reputation as a valuable midseason acquisition and a cornerstone of the team's defense. Looking ahead, Fowler is entering the final year of his current contract, which expires after the 2025-26 season. The Blues will be eligible to begin extension talks starting July 1, and with Fowler openly expressing interest in remaining with the team, a contract renewal seems likely. Given his age and veteran status, a short-term extension could offer the Blues flexibility while retaining a key contributor to their defensive lineup. Also Read: Maple Leafs prospect Easton Cowan leads London Knights to 2025 Memorial Cup Final rematch The upcoming contract decision will be a major factor in the Blues' strategy to build a roster capable of competing deep into the playoffs in the highly competitive Central Division. Hockey analysts and fans will be watching closely as St. Louis works to secure Fowler's future and continue bolstering their defense for seasons to come. How the Blues handle Fowler's extension could set the tone for their long-term defensive stability and overall team success.
The Advertiser
a day ago
- Sport
- The Advertiser
NSW Blues: Tahs' Super finals hopes buried at Eden Park
With a captain's frank confession that his side wasn't good enough, the NSW Waratahs' Super Rugby Pacific season of promise is officially over. The Waratahs' faint finals hopes ended in despair with an ugly, record-breaking and entirely expected 46-6 loss to the rampant Blues in Auckland on Saturday. The Waratahs needed to defeat the defending champions for the first time at Eden Park in 16 years to keep their spluttering campaign alive. Instead, Dan McKellar's depleted troops, often their own worst enemies needlessly kicking possession away, copped a seven-tries-to-nil drubbing at New Zealand rugby's traditional burial ground. "The Blues were too good, too classy for us," stand-in skipper Hugh Sinclair said. For the opening half an hour, a famous NSW victory looked possible - until the wheels fell off in a sorry, anticlimactic conclusion to what had been the Waratahs' best start to a Super campaign since 2009. But a disastrous, coach-killing four-minute lapse before the interval ultimately cruelled the dreamy visitors, before the Blues ran amok with four tries in a second-half clinic. Despite being without injured stars Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, Max Jorgensen, skipper Jake Gordon and flankers Rob Leota and Charlie Gamble, the Waratahs were right in the must-win game for both sides after rookie flyhalf Jack Bowen slotted a 34th-minute penalty goal to reduce the deficit to four points. Playing with spirit, as they should with their season on the line, the Tahs had winger Andrew Kellaway and rookie scrumhalf Teddy Wilson to thank for desperate try-saving tackles to stay in the contest. But a Bowen blunder, when he slipped and failed to find touch for a clearing kick, and a touch of magic from two-time world player of the player Beauden Barrett blew the game wide open for the Blues in a twinkling. Two tries in three minutes to brilliant centre Rieko Ioane, the second after the halftime siren when Waratahs opposite Henry O'Donnell couldn't handle a probing kick from Barrett near halfway, suddenly extended the Blues' tenuous lead from 10-6 to 24-6. There was no coming back for the Waratahs when fullback Corey Evans strolled over untouched shortly after the break to extend the Blues' lead to 31-6. The Blues' sixth try, to hooker Ricky Riccitelli, was more than academic. It virtually secured a precious bonus point to pile the pressure on Moana Pasifika to produce a similar victory later on Saturday against the Hurricanes in Wellington to deny Vern Cotter's side a place in the finals. The hosts' seventh five-pointer was more significant to Ioane, who equalled All Blacks great Doug Howlett's Blues try-scoring record with 55 after beating three Waratahs defenders to another menacing Barrett kick. The Blues' biggest-ever victory margin over the Waratahs did not look likely when Bowen's two first-half penalties almost wiped out Mark Tele'a's 11th-minute try, then Ioane's first strike off a deft AJ Lam grubber. But an hour later and the clinical Blues were anxiously awaiting their finals fate. "They had a couple of opportunities in that first half, a couple of those kicks just went to hand and they're good enough to finish them and they're ruthless enough to put us away in that second half, and we just couldn't get a sniff," Sinclair said. "Their defence was great and, yeah, back to the drawing board for us, I guess." The Blues were left sweating on the fourth-placed Hurricanes denying Moana an unlikely bonus-point triumph away in the NZ capital that would push the title-holders through to a sudden-death final against the table-topping Chiefs in Hamilton. "A lot of us will be keeping a close eye on it," said Blues captain Patrick Tuipulotu. "But it's out of our hands. "But if we get the chance, we'll be ready." With a captain's frank confession that his side wasn't good enough, the NSW Waratahs' Super Rugby Pacific season of promise is officially over. The Waratahs' faint finals hopes ended in despair with an ugly, record-breaking and entirely expected 46-6 loss to the rampant Blues in Auckland on Saturday. The Waratahs needed to defeat the defending champions for the first time at Eden Park in 16 years to keep their spluttering campaign alive. Instead, Dan McKellar's depleted troops, often their own worst enemies needlessly kicking possession away, copped a seven-tries-to-nil drubbing at New Zealand rugby's traditional burial ground. "The Blues were too good, too classy for us," stand-in skipper Hugh Sinclair said. For the opening half an hour, a famous NSW victory looked possible - until the wheels fell off in a sorry, anticlimactic conclusion to what had been the Waratahs' best start to a Super campaign since 2009. But a disastrous, coach-killing four-minute lapse before the interval ultimately cruelled the dreamy visitors, before the Blues ran amok with four tries in a second-half clinic. Despite being without injured stars Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, Max Jorgensen, skipper Jake Gordon and flankers Rob Leota and Charlie Gamble, the Waratahs were right in the must-win game for both sides after rookie flyhalf Jack Bowen slotted a 34th-minute penalty goal to reduce the deficit to four points. Playing with spirit, as they should with their season on the line, the Tahs had winger Andrew Kellaway and rookie scrumhalf Teddy Wilson to thank for desperate try-saving tackles to stay in the contest. But a Bowen blunder, when he slipped and failed to find touch for a clearing kick, and a touch of magic from two-time world player of the player Beauden Barrett blew the game wide open for the Blues in a twinkling. Two tries in three minutes to brilliant centre Rieko Ioane, the second after the halftime siren when Waratahs opposite Henry O'Donnell couldn't handle a probing kick from Barrett near halfway, suddenly extended the Blues' tenuous lead from 10-6 to 24-6. There was no coming back for the Waratahs when fullback Corey Evans strolled over untouched shortly after the break to extend the Blues' lead to 31-6. The Blues' sixth try, to hooker Ricky Riccitelli, was more than academic. It virtually secured a precious bonus point to pile the pressure on Moana Pasifika to produce a similar victory later on Saturday against the Hurricanes in Wellington to deny Vern Cotter's side a place in the finals. The hosts' seventh five-pointer was more significant to Ioane, who equalled All Blacks great Doug Howlett's Blues try-scoring record with 55 after beating three Waratahs defenders to another menacing Barrett kick. The Blues' biggest-ever victory margin over the Waratahs did not look likely when Bowen's two first-half penalties almost wiped out Mark Tele'a's 11th-minute try, then Ioane's first strike off a deft AJ Lam grubber. But an hour later and the clinical Blues were anxiously awaiting their finals fate. "They had a couple of opportunities in that first half, a couple of those kicks just went to hand and they're good enough to finish them and they're ruthless enough to put us away in that second half, and we just couldn't get a sniff," Sinclair said. "Their defence was great and, yeah, back to the drawing board for us, I guess." The Blues were left sweating on the fourth-placed Hurricanes denying Moana an unlikely bonus-point triumph away in the NZ capital that would push the title-holders through to a sudden-death final against the table-topping Chiefs in Hamilton. "A lot of us will be keeping a close eye on it," said Blues captain Patrick Tuipulotu. "But it's out of our hands. "But if we get the chance, we'll be ready." With a captain's frank confession that his side wasn't good enough, the NSW Waratahs' Super Rugby Pacific season of promise is officially over. The Waratahs' faint finals hopes ended in despair with an ugly, record-breaking and entirely expected 46-6 loss to the rampant Blues in Auckland on Saturday. The Waratahs needed to defeat the defending champions for the first time at Eden Park in 16 years to keep their spluttering campaign alive. Instead, Dan McKellar's depleted troops, often their own worst enemies needlessly kicking possession away, copped a seven-tries-to-nil drubbing at New Zealand rugby's traditional burial ground. "The Blues were too good, too classy for us," stand-in skipper Hugh Sinclair said. For the opening half an hour, a famous NSW victory looked possible - until the wheels fell off in a sorry, anticlimactic conclusion to what had been the Waratahs' best start to a Super campaign since 2009. But a disastrous, coach-killing four-minute lapse before the interval ultimately cruelled the dreamy visitors, before the Blues ran amok with four tries in a second-half clinic. Despite being without injured stars Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, Max Jorgensen, skipper Jake Gordon and flankers Rob Leota and Charlie Gamble, the Waratahs were right in the must-win game for both sides after rookie flyhalf Jack Bowen slotted a 34th-minute penalty goal to reduce the deficit to four points. Playing with spirit, as they should with their season on the line, the Tahs had winger Andrew Kellaway and rookie scrumhalf Teddy Wilson to thank for desperate try-saving tackles to stay in the contest. But a Bowen blunder, when he slipped and failed to find touch for a clearing kick, and a touch of magic from two-time world player of the player Beauden Barrett blew the game wide open for the Blues in a twinkling. Two tries in three minutes to brilliant centre Rieko Ioane, the second after the halftime siren when Waratahs opposite Henry O'Donnell couldn't handle a probing kick from Barrett near halfway, suddenly extended the Blues' tenuous lead from 10-6 to 24-6. There was no coming back for the Waratahs when fullback Corey Evans strolled over untouched shortly after the break to extend the Blues' lead to 31-6. The Blues' sixth try, to hooker Ricky Riccitelli, was more than academic. It virtually secured a precious bonus point to pile the pressure on Moana Pasifika to produce a similar victory later on Saturday against the Hurricanes in Wellington to deny Vern Cotter's side a place in the finals. The hosts' seventh five-pointer was more significant to Ioane, who equalled All Blacks great Doug Howlett's Blues try-scoring record with 55 after beating three Waratahs defenders to another menacing Barrett kick. The Blues' biggest-ever victory margin over the Waratahs did not look likely when Bowen's two first-half penalties almost wiped out Mark Tele'a's 11th-minute try, then Ioane's first strike off a deft AJ Lam grubber. But an hour later and the clinical Blues were anxiously awaiting their finals fate. "They had a couple of opportunities in that first half, a couple of those kicks just went to hand and they're good enough to finish them and they're ruthless enough to put us away in that second half, and we just couldn't get a sniff," Sinclair said. "Their defence was great and, yeah, back to the drawing board for us, I guess." The Blues were left sweating on the fourth-placed Hurricanes denying Moana an unlikely bonus-point triumph away in the NZ capital that would push the title-holders through to a sudden-death final against the table-topping Chiefs in Hamilton. "A lot of us will be keeping a close eye on it," said Blues captain Patrick Tuipulotu. "But it's out of our hands. "But if we get the chance, we'll be ready."
Perth Now
a day ago
- Sport
- Perth Now
NSW Blues: Tahs' Super finals hopes buried at Eden Park
The NSW Waratahs' season of promise has ended in despair with an ugly, record-breaking 46-6 Super Rugby Pacific loss to the Blues in Auckland. The Waratahs needed to defeat the defending champions for the first time at Eden Park in 16 years to keep their finals hopes alive. Instead, Dan McKellar's depleted side copped a seven-tries-to-nil drubbing at New Zealand rugby's burial ground on Saturday. For the opening half an hour, a famous victory looked possible - until the wheels fell off in a sorry, anticlimactic conclusion to what had been the Waratahs' best start to a Super campaign since 2009. But a disastrous, coach-killing four-minute lapse before the interval ultimately cruelled the dreamy visitors before the Blues ran amok with four tries in a second-half clinic. Despite being without injured stars Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, Max Jorgensen, skipper Jake Gordon and flankers Rob Leota and Charlie Gamble, the Waratahs were right in the must-win game for both sides after rookie flyhalf Jack Bowen slotted a 34th-minute penalty goal to reduce the deficit to four points. Playing with spirit, as they should with their season on the line, the Tahs had winger Andrew Kellaway and rookie scrumhalf Teddy Wilson to thank for desperate try-saving tackles to stay in the contest. But a Bowen blunder, when he slipped and failed to find touch for a clearing kick, and a touch of magic from two-time world player of the player Beauden Barrett blew the game wide open for the Blues in a twinkling. Two tries in three minutes to brilliant centre Rieko Ioane, the second after the halftime siren when Waratahs opposite Henry O'Donnell couldn't handle a probing kick from Barrett near halfway, suddenly extended the Blues' tenuous lead from 10-6 to 24-6. There was no coming back for the Waratahs when fullback Corey Evans strolled over untouched shortly after the break to extend the Blues' lead to 31-6. The Blues' sixth try, to hooker Ricky Riccitelli, was more than academic. It virtually secured a precious bonus point to pile the pressure on Moana Pasifika to produce a similar victory later on Saturday against the Hurricanes in Wellington to deny Vern Cotter's side a place in the finals. The hosts' seventh five-pointer was more significant to Ioane, who equalled All Blacks great Doug Howlett's Blues try-scoring record with 55 after beating three Waratahs defenders to another menacing Barrett kick. The Blues' biggest-ever victory margin over the Waratahs did not look likely when Bowen's two first-half penalties almost wiped out Mark Tele'a's 11th-minute try and then Ioane's first strike off a deft AJ Lam grubber. But an hour later and the Blues were anxiously awaiting their finals fate, needing the fourth-placed Hurricanes to deny Moana an unlikely bonus-point triumph away in the NZ capital to push the title-holders through to the play-offs.
Sydney Morning Herald
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
He's the angriest coach in the NRL. But Craig Bellamy lightened up for Origin
With a camera crew following his every move, Craig Bellamy last year revealed the game-day angst he has carried his whole career. Despite having coached more than 500 NRL matches, Stan's Revealed - Craig Bellamy: Inside the Storm documentary lifted the lid on how nerves frequently make the hours before a game almost unbearable for one of rugby league's greatest ever mentors. On Wednesday night, clutching a Jim Beam and cola (no Queensland sugarcane champagne, thank you) in the Suncorp sheds, Bellamy toasted the Blues' grinding 18-6 Origin I victory, and Laurie Daley. And for once, a pleasurable game-day experience. Bellamy, Daley's sounding board in the coach's box, made sure he sat largely out of sight of Channel 9's cameras. And revelled in the fact it was someone else going through the emotional wringer only a head coach can truly understand. A coach's burden can be a cruel and unusual punishment. An incredible investment in the 17 players in the middle, so much work poured into them, their game plan and every possible scenario … and then you have to watch on, largely unable to influence proceedings any further beyond interchanges and relayed messages. 'So I was well-behaved,' Bellamy grinned. No blow-ups, he swears. Daley confirms.
