Rugby: Southlander toast of Chiefs

There was always going to be one team leaving Waikato Stadium contemplating a horrible start to their 2012 campaign.

Chiefs 29
Blues 14

Most people thought it would be the Chiefs. Instead they poured on 29 first-half points, embarrassing a lethargic Blues team which lacked direction and composure.

This was a match played for the benefit of Plunket, but it is the Blues' fractured egos and confidence that will need nursing back to health as they board a plane for South Africa tomorrow afternoon.

The Chiefs went out and bought themselves some high-profile imports this season - coach Dave Rennie, his assistant, Wayne Smith, Sonny Bill Williams and Aaron Cruden - but it was an under-the-radar signing who provided the Chiefs will a real spark.

Robbie Robinson, the Southland utility turned Chiefs fullback, was the key figure in two spectacular long-range tries.

The first involved him breaking from deep, beating the flimsytackle of Jerome Kaino no less, before sending Asaeli Tikoirotuma in.

Later, he hovered on halfback Tawera Kerr-Barlow's shoulder before taking an in-pass and rushing deep into Blues' territory. Tim Nanai-Williams, forced to the left wing to accommodate Robinson, ended up the beneficiary.

Robinson might have been quiet against his former Highlanders team-mates in week one, but this was not a bad way to introduce his talents to a new crowd.

 

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