Blues 2017

[Tim]

@Duluth Great to hear about Vaega.

He looked sharp in his 2016 Super Rugby appearances, and had good NPC. Hope to see him get some game time soon.

[Whites72]

@Duluth how has dalton popoali'i played? What is his best position? 6,7 or 8

[Duluth]

Royal charges down a clearing kick then Canes penalised for offside

Blues score from another maul. Not sure who got it

Blues ahead 28-19

[Duluth]

@Whites72

He's done lots of good work on defence, really accurate. Not much phase play in this game though

[Duluth]

Canes held up over the line after another maul attempt

They barge over a couple of phases after the scrum

Kirikiri with his second

28-26

[Duluth]

Some soft defence and the Canes are in under the posts

They lead 33-28

[Duluth]

Penalty outs the Blues on attack

They almost score from the maul. Held up over the line after a couple of pick and goes

Well worked midfield move from the scrum. Rayasi scores

Blues back in front 35-33

[Duluth]

There's been a lot of mauls from 5m out in this game

A series of penalties get the Canes another one

They score from the maul (1st in 5 attempts?)

Canes 40-35

[Duluth]

Goodhue, who has played well, falls off a tackle out wide

Canes in again (O'Rielly?)

45-35

[Duluth]

Hyland has had some good touches

[Whites72]

Sounds like a hell of a game

[Duluth]

And that's it

Uneven quality. Typical dev game.

No one beating down the door for selection. Royal, Goodhue, Dalton, Gatland, Vaega and Ranger in the second 20mins the better players

Dalton named Blues player of the day

[Duluth]

@Whites72

Would have been better without each side conceding a couple of really easy tries. Not bad for a dev match though

[mimic]

@Whites72 said in Blues 2017:

@Duluth how has dalton popoali'i played? What is his best position? 6,7 or 8

Growing up he played a lot of 6/8.. I'm guessing they might try and convert him like they did with Gibson, because we lack 7s

[KiwiMurph]

@Duluth Thanks very much for the commentary - good to read.

[Stargazer]

Thanks for the updates @Duluth!

Lacking a Canes' line-up, do you know whether Jonah Lowe (centre or wing) and Tiaan Falcon (first-five) were playing?

[Duluth]

@Stargazer

No idea sorry

Never saw the Canes team list and wasn't paying much attention to the opposition

[Stargazer]

The Hurricanes just tweeted that Canes hooker Asafo Aumua scored a hat trick. (Last week he scored two.)

[Crucial]

@Chester-Draws said in Blues 2017:

Stuff reckons:
However, the level of stick the franchise cops for failing to unearth a Carlos Spencer-type player to lead them back to the promised land is unfair.

As if the Blues/Auckland unearthed Carlos!

He'd played two years at provincial footy at Horowhenua before being lured up North. He wasn't some hidden gem unearthed by clever scouting -- he'd long shown his class.

The Blues' problem isn't unearthing talented 1st 5s. It's winning enough games that good 1st-fives want to play for them.

Please note this wasn't from Stuff. It is from newsroom. Showing early signs of some proper news reporting and sports writing. Worth keeping an eye on for the possibility of the missing source of decent rugby journalism

[Tim]

Elsewhere news is mixed for the Blues with Sonny Bill Williams back training fully and Steven Luatua, having served his four-week suspension, also expected to feature against the Highlanders. ​

But Rene Ranger has been sideline with another ankle injury after scoring two tries in a match for the Blues development team.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/super-rugby/91186242/blues-lose-iahia-west-to-ankle-injury