Blues defeat Cheetahs by 29-22 at Whangarei during seventh round of Super Rugby
Blues have defeated the Cheetahs after a close contest at Whangarei, New Zealand during the seventh round of the Super Rugby played on Saturday evening.
It was nice and clear day here at Whangarei and both the teams were looking for their first ever victory at New Zealand soil. Before this, both the teams faced each other for five times and Blues cashed in on victory in four clashes.
The Blues started the game aggressively and won a penalty just in the second minute of the play but Luke McAlister could not avail the chance as it was not at a fair enough distance to score. The Cheetahs saved another try after 2 minutes with the help of
Kabamba. The Cheetahs were on the back foot since the start of the play and they had a severe blow as their flank Phillip van der Walt hobbles was sent off the field due to injury in the first half.
The blues scored their first point on a try it was a nice collaborated effort by McAlister and Joe Rokocoko. Luke McAlister scored further points for his team on conversion and reached the total to 7-0. It was turning to be a good day for him as he added
seven more points to the total with a conversion and Blues were leading by 14-0 after 36 minutes.
The score remained same until the interval but what a day it was proving for McAlister who utilised another penalty followed by conversion and score reached to 24-0 for blues. The frustrated Cheetahs opened their account during the 54thminutes of the game
on a try and later on, they tried to backlash the Blues. The Cheetahs minimised the deficit to 24-8 in the 62nd minute of the clash. The match looked quite open in the dying moments and Cheetahs played comparatively better in the second part of the game. Sias
Ebersohn's conversion during the 68th minute was breather for Cheetahs as the accelerated the score to 24-15.
McAlister put his fourth kick into the goal with seven minutes left in the final whistle and the Cheetahs Sias Ebersohn had a conversion just couple of minutes to go. In the end, the equation was favouring the Blues with 29-22.
Tags: