Blues captain Keven Mealamu laments his team’s disappointing show against Rebels
Auckland Blues Captain and Hooker Keven Mealamu has expressed utter disappointment over his side’s performance in their game against the Melbourne Rebels played at Albany on Friday April 22, 2011.
Blues defeated the Rebels 40-23, however it could so easily be the other way around. Blues played impressively during the first 10-15 minutes of the game and later during the last 10 minutes of the game. Blues with this win will made their way to the top
three of the Super XV but have to wait for Reds and Crusaders matches tomorrow to confirm their top position in the Super XV.
Blues Captain was critical of his team mixed performance in phases, which allowed the super rugby new comers to remain in the game until the 70th minute of the game. With ten minutes remaining in the game, Rebels were trailing by just five points and had
a momentum on their side.
Blues were scoreless for consecutive 24 minutes in the second half before they break the point drought with 73rd minute try of their Centre Jared Payne. Mealamu acknowledged the team’s error laden performance as they failed to execute the game plan against
the Rebels.
Mealamu said, “In games like this, you've got to build pressure and with those little errors we turned the ball over to them and that wasn't the way we wanted to play today.”
Although Blues were impressive while defending however their forward line have not let go some simple scoring opportunities. Particularly Blues Fly Half Stephen Brett’s performance was below par and if the results would be other way around, it would be just
because of the simple chances that he has missed in the game.
Brett started the match poorly as he missed his first conversion during the 3rd minute of the game. He missed his second conversion after the Rene Ranger’s 12th minute penalty. Later he scored on his third conversion followed by successfully kicking two
penalties during the second half.
Stephen Brett started the second half poorly as he missed a penalty during the 43rd minute of the game. Two minutes later Brett missed another penalty to take the total missed points tally to 10 points. Auckland Blues Fly Half Stephen Brett missed his third
conversion after the Benson Stanley’s 47th minute try. Luke McAlister eventually substituted Brett during the 51st minute.
Blues captain Keven Mealamu is aware of the fact that in order to retain place amongst the leaders of the Super XV they cannot afford to repeat the errors again and has promised to “get better.”
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