Anthony Au-Yeung/Getty Images
Blues women’s captain Eloise Blackwell said it was awesome to see some of her teenage team-mates scoring tries. “The first 20 was a bit of a bit of a whitewash in terms of what I can remember. It was just so fast and trying to transition this big rig around the field – that was quite difficult. “Little Patricia went over for our first try, followed by Sylvia, so two of our teenage girls, and it’s awesome for them. “They are teenagers competing against women – some almost twice their age – so for them to rise to the occasion and feel confident that they can do that, I think that is just awesome.”
That intensity led to more than a few infringements, and it was Hazel Tubic that scored the first points, putting the Chiefs ahead 3-0 with a penalty from 30m out after seven minutes, when Blues prop Aleisha-Pearl Nelson failed to roll away after a tackle – the first of 14 she would muster in total thanks to some fine kicking.
Anthony Au-Yeung/Getty Images
Patricia Maliepo scores the opening try for the Blues women against the Chiefs. But at the ensuing kickoff, Tubic stepped into touch while gathering the ball, and the Blues were quickly in a threatening position down the right.
Women s Super Rugby: Chiefs upstage Blues in historic clash
1 May, 2021 06:30 AM
5 minutes to read
The Chiefs celebrate victory over the Blues. Photo / Photosport
Chiefs 39
Blues 12
Blues captain Eloise Blackwell says her side s defeat to the Chiefs in the maiden New Zealand women s Super Rugby match at Eden Park proves the female game deserves proper investment.
The Chiefs comfortably upstaged the Blues, putting away their neighbours 39-12, but in many ways the result was secondary to giving women in this country a Super Rugby platform to aspire to. It s been pretty surreal, such a special occasion, and definitely long overdue, Blackwell said.
Born in 2004, Brunt – a prefect at Mount Albert Grammar School – is the youngest of the lot, having just turned 17. That means she wasn’t yet alive the last time the Blues men won Super Rugby – or Super 12, as it was known back then – in May 2003. But if that makes you feel old, don’t worry, because assistant coach Anna Richards is in the same boat. “They love telling me that they weren t born when I last played, so I m not too happy about that,” she joked on Thursday, when asked about her team’s teenagers.
CHIEFS
Chiefs women s coach Chad Shepherd says their players can be pioneers for the game.
Joseph Pearson12:10, Apr 30 2021
CHIEFS
Chiefs women s coach Chad Shepherd says their players can be pioneers for the game.
La Toya Mason played 70 tests for England, three Rugby World Cup finals, winning the 2014 decider, but reckons she never reached her full potential as a player. Now back home, as Taranaki Rugby’s head of women’s rugby and with the first Chiefs women’s team as an assistant coach, the former halfback, who was born in Auckland, says she is watching the women’s game grow in ways she never could have imagined at the start of her international career in 2009.