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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.
Chiefs prop Tanya Kalounivale on the charge
Photo: Photosport
After trailing by just six at half-time, the Blues couldn t score in the second spell, conceding too many turnovers and hamstrung by an inability to build pressure.
They d made a strong start, and two first-half tries helped them keep pace with the Chiefs.
Experienced Black Ferns playmaker Hazel Tubic opened the scoring for the visitors with an early penalty, but the Blues didn t take long to hit back.
First-five Patricia Maliepo pounced on a kick through, and converted her own try to give the Blues a 7-3 lead after 10 minutes.
That lasted barely two minutes before Chiefs winger Langi Veainu sliced through the midfield, showing impressive speed to round the scrambling cover defence and score in the corner.
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.