The Blues have kept the Highlanders winless this season with a 32-20 come-from-behind win to retain the Gordon Hunter Memorial Trophy at North Harbour Stadium.
Despite heading into this evening’s clash as the red-hot favourites, the Blues were rocked by a minor COVID-19 outbreak earlier in the day that resulted in All Blacks star Beauden Barrett, Nepo Laulala and backup halfback Sam Nock all being unavailable.
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An upset looked on the cards when during the 29th-minute, Luke Romano was shown a yellow card for collapsing the maul, which handed the Highlanders a penalty try to take a 10-point lead.
It was a nightmare first-half for the Blues who were also denied what should’ve been a certain try when Caleb Clarke had the ball in space, with no one in front of him before Aaron Smith dislodged the ball from behind, courtesy of some careless ball handling.
But it was a tale of two halves when Taine Plumtree answered for the Blues with back-to-back tries in the opening 10 minutes of the second half.
Rieko Ioane then made it three consecutive tries when he scored in the 65th-minute as the Blues looked like a completely different team.
“In that first half, it wasn’t how we wanted to start,” said Blues captain Dalton Papalii after the game.
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“We knew coming into this that the Highlanders are one of the best teams at executing what they want.
“That first half was a bit of a battle, but we got some clear messages from the coaches and leaders and the boys surged in that second half.”
Highlanders skipper Aaron Smith said his side will need to have some honest conversations.
“We had an awesome first half, put points on the board and put them under pressure, but the second half, that first five minutes was pretty horrible,” Smith said.
“We couldn’t build anything or get any momentum back.
“We’ve got to keep building. We all have to take a good look at ourselves and make sure we’re doing that prep we want.”
Through three rounds, the Blues are now with two wins and one defeat.
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