The Blues have booked a place in the Super Rugby Pacific final with a 34-20 win over the Brumbies at Eden Park.
The Brumbies were outplayed all night, never leading the contest, and gave away possession that gifted the Blues tries.
The visitors scored just two tries in Auckland, either side of half-time, but the Blues were dominant, scoring five tries – four of which came inside the first quarter of the match.
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Stan Sport commentator Cameron Shepherd said the Brumbies would be left wondering how they were so badly outplayed.
“Isn’t it interesting, Eden Park has something about it,” said Shepherd.
“We don’t know what it is, but once again I think there’ll be a lot of Brumbies (players) sitting in the changing room thinking ‘What just happened then? How did we get down so much? How did the game get away from us?
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“How did we have so little control of our own destiny in the game?’ And that’s probably the question so many teams that have sat in the changing room, like the Brumbies are doing right now, are asking themselves.”
It continues a grim trend of Australian sides playing finals in New Zealand and failing to win.
The Blues win cements an all-Kiwi final and they will play the winner of Saturday’s Hurricanes vs Chiefs semi-final.
Asked where the game slipped away from them, Brumbies captain Allan Alaalatoa said the win slipped “at the start” of the contest.
“We weren’t clinical coming out of our end. I think we gave them three balls off our kick-off receipt and they made us pay through tries,” he explained.
“You can’t give a side like that that ascendancy from the beginning of the game. We tried hard to fight hard from there but I think they got too much of a lead at the start of the game.
“It’s a tough lesson for us that in finals, especially against the Blues and their home stadium. You can’t give them that lead early on in the game.
The Blues put the first points on the board inside two minutes after 13 phases in which they edged closer to the try line.
As they dragged in defenders, the Brumbies were caught short on the wing.
That offered Harry Plummer a chance to swing the ball wide to AJ Lam who eased over the try line unchallenged.
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A rare miss for Plummer kept the score at 5-0 after the conversion kick.
It wasn’t long before the Brumbies responded, earning a penalty after a messy restart by the Blues. Caleb Clarke got pinged for holding on as Rory Scott got his hands on the ball.
The Brumbies paid the price of contesting the lineout just a few metres out from their own try line when the Blues began a driving maul. In the end, it was Ricky Riccitelli who scored the try. Plummer converted and the Blues stretched their legs to a 12-3 advantage.
Referee James Doleman punished Dalton Papalii for not rolling away and Noah Lolesio slotted his second penalty goal of the night to trail 12-6.
The Blues had their third try inside 14 minutes courtesy of Sam Darry. Again, it was a Brumbies mistake from the kick-off that gifted the home side possession as Darcy Swain fumbled the pill.
Little more than a minute after the error, the Blues worked their way over the try line as they drove forward phase after phase until Darry barged over. Plummer converted and the lead blew out to 19-6.
On the stroke of 20 minutes, the Brumbies folded a scrum but the Blues played on. The ball was flung out to Plummer who looked for Mark Telea. However, the ball came loose and bounced forward before being scooped up by Stephen Perofeta.
He burst through one tackle and saw Clarke alone on the wing. A high-flying pass landed perfectly and Clarke scored. That made it 24-6 with the kick unconverted.
The Brumbies finally scored their first try less than five minutes out from half-time. Flanker Rob Valetini edged over to draw the deficit back to 24-13.
The referee stung the Brumbies with just over a minute to go after Darcy Swain left his feet. Plummer kicked from just short of half-way to take a 27-13 lead into the break.
In a bizarre sequence of play, the Brumbies stripped the ball away from the Blues only for it to land in the hands of Hoskins Sotutu who scored under the posts 20 minutes into the second half. With the conversion, the Blues led 34-13.
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The Brumbies narrowed the gap slightly just a little more than 10 minutes to go when the Blues got caught short out wide. Noah Lolesio looked like he’d go alone only to be taken down just short of the try line.
Ultimately, it was Luke Reimer who scored after 12 phases. With the conversion, they trailed 34-20.
Nick Frost’s season came to an early end when he made contact with Clarke in the air while contesting the ball. Clarke landed badly and Frost was sent to the sin-bin as a result.
The scoreline remained unchanged from there.
The second semi-final between the Hurricanes and Chiefs in Wellington gets underway at 2.35pm Saturday AEST.