The Blues travelled West tonight and handed out an absolute hiding to the Force at NIB stadium.
The Match
This was a one sided contest almost from the first minute. The Blues rocketed out of the gate and stuck three tries on the home side almost before people got comfortable in their seats. The first came from a clever cross field kick to the left wing and a subsequent kick chase from the next phase saw five-eighth West go over. The second came as a result of not one, but two charge downs from returning Force half back Alby Mathewson and big Charlie Faumuina barging over from an ensuing phase. The third came from a mistake from Force fullback Jayden Hayward and Blues flanker Steven Luatua scooping the ball up from a ruck and going over.
The Force defence was all over the place at this point and looked utterly powerless to stop the Blues from scoring. The situation got worse when All Black centre Nonu brushed aside some shoddy defence to score. That was it, bonus point wrapped up in 20 minutes of footy and the Force looked pretty shellshocked. It was very reminiscent of the Brumbies game earlier in the season where a lot of us thought “here we go again, another dismal season”.
It was well into the half before the home side got any kind of respectable possession and field position. They toiled away manfully but were unable to make any impression on the gain line at all. It was real men against boys stuff out there and the Blues defence kept smashing backwards wave after wave of Force attack. Admittedly there was a fair bit of infringing going on and referee Hoffman could have reached for the pocket earlier, but it doesn’t alter the fact that the Force were offering nothing.
The remainder of the half followed a similar pattern. The Blues would give away a penalty, the Force would kick for the corner and try to set up some sort of attack and the visitors would get up in their faces and shut any raid down. It looked pretty dire from the stands.
The second half was rather like the first. The possession and territory were a fair bit more even but where the Blues looked likely to score at any moment, with their powerful midfield having it all over the Force, the home team looked pretty one-dimensional and lateral, even with a man advantage after Hoffman finally lost patience with the Blues and binned Tom Donnelly.
The Blues scored twice more, once through Luke Braid, who benefitted from excellent driving play from his fellow forwards and the second through a slightly fortunate bounce off a grubber kick that leapt into the arms of Pita Ahki. The Force, to their credit, didn’t stop trying but it was like a lone man with a shovel trying to stop an avalanche. They did get some consolation with a couple of late tries to Charles and Stander, but they were pretty meaningless really.
The Blues came out with purpose right from the first minute and got immediately on the front foot. They won the collisions, were direct in their running and passing and took good options. The Force by contrast looked asleep in that first quarter and got blown off the park. All the things that got them into the top six this season were not in evidence tonight: dominance at the break down, confrontational defence, solidity in the set pieces and a powerful driving maul. In each of these areas they were found wanting and the Blues took full advantage. The visitors looked sharp and hungry and it makes you wonder why they haven’t been firmly anchored in finals contention all season. The Force have a lot of work to do if they are to knock off the Reds next week.
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The Game Changer
First few minutes. The Blues smashed into the home team and put them on the back foot for the full 80.
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The G&GR MotM
Not many contributors out there tonight, but I thought Sam Wykes tried hard.
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Wallaby watch
Not one Force player enhanced their Wallaby prospects tonight. [/one_third]
The Details
Blues: 40 (West, Faumuina, Luatua, Nonu, Braid, Ahki tries; West 6 cons; West pen) defeated Force: 14 (Charles, Stander tries; Hayward 2 conv)
Yellow cards: Tom Donnelly.
Refereee: Rohan Hoffman
