Down on troops and playing in challenging conditions on Saturday, Blues claimed a 25-14 victory over Pirates-Old Boys which has put it in a strong position in the race to the Southland premier club playoffs.
Blues had already firmed as the biggest improver in this year’s race to the Galbraith Shield title. However, there was plenty of intrigue as to just how it would respond on Saturday without a couple of big boppers up front.
Stags No8 Bill Fukofuka has a broken bone in his foot and may miss the remainder of the club campaign, while big Blues lock Ray Tatafu has a shoulder injury.
Those injuries are as well as plenty of others in the Blues set-up.
In wet and greasy conditions on Saturday, the forward packs’ importance grew and Fukofuka and Tatafu’s omissions were expected to be felt further.
However, Blues responded to the challenge and did it from 9-3 down at halftime.
Balmoral Dr ground was firm but the water on top of the field resulted in slippery conditions as both teams had their troubles holding on to the ball.
Points were at a premium early in the contest and it was Pirates-Old Boys first five-eighth Greg Dyer who had the biggest say in the first half.
A week after a challenging goal-kicking day in the 20-17 loss to Marist, Dyer’s radar was well and truly on target against Blues.
He kicked three difficult penalties in the first half to push Pirates-Old Boys out to a 9-3 lead.
However, three second-half Blues tries propelled it to the encouraging win.
Lock Jay Navukuka was the first to crash over to close the score to 9-8.
Prop Ethan de Groot showed good strength and determination as he brushed through the Pirates-Old Boys defence to score Blues’ second. Blues led for the first time in the game at 15-9.
First five-eighth Mitch Taylor then pushed the lead out to 18-9 with the penalty, and given the nature of the game, a nine-point lead was a big one.
With just a couple of minutes remaining Dyer provided a glimmer of hope when he spotted a gap and went in to score to reduce it to 18-14.
However, with time up on the clock, Pirates-Old Boys attempted to attack from deep inside its own half only to cough up the ball.
Blues hooker Jaya More pounced as he ran in Blues third try on the stroke of fulltime to deny Pirates-Old Boys what could have been an all-important bonus point for being within seven points.
Pirates-Old Boys now eyes a big fixture against Star on Thursday night at the Les George Oval.
Pirates-Old Boys sits in fifth spot, three points ahead of Star and a win is probably vital if it is to remain in touch with the top four sides.
It sits four points behind fourth-placed Eastern-Northern Barbarians which lost 13-6 to Woodlands at the Gore Showgrounds on Friday night.
The victory took Woodlands’ 2018 record to six wins and three losses and it sits in second place, five points behind competition leader Marist.
Marist picked up five competition points without having to make a tackle on Saturday after Star defaulted because of a player shortage.
- Logan Savory