Super Rugby: Defending champs play cards right in controversial thriller

Analysis: Beauden Barrett plays halfback, the Chiefs lose Damian McKenzie, and Moana Pasifika feature in another Super Rugby Pacific heartbreaker, writes Patrick McKendry.

The defending champions have their first competition points of the season thanks to a 33-29 victory over the Hurricanes in Wellington that was not without controversy.

The match officials took centrestage at the end of the opening quarter as referee Angus Gardner showed a yellow card to Rieko Ioane for offside — after earlier showing yellows to Hurricanes props Xavier Numia (off-the-ball tackle) and replacement Pouri Rakete-Stones (scrum offence).

But that was nothing compared with the second half.

First, Blues No.8 Hoskins Sotutu was sinbinned for a high tackle on Peter Lakai, an offence upgraded to a red card. Then the officials — and some of the teams’ management —gathered around a pitch-side laptop in the final few minutes to determine whether halfback Finlay Christie could return to the pitch.

The question was whether Christie’s replacement Sam Nock, who had been forced from the pitch, had suffered a head injury or not. If he had, Christie, who started, could have come back on.

In the end, referee Gardner — who, rightly, gave short shrift to advice from the gathered Blues’ management — and the match doctor decided Nock hadn’t, and that the Blues had to finish the game without a specialist No.9.

It meant Beauden Barrett had to put the ball into two hotly contested scrums on his team’s line in the final moments. The second featured the Blues in retreat, only for Gardner to award them a penalty for a Hurricanes’ front row offence. It appeared harsh. The home side may have wished for laptop-style scrutiny.

Speaking of Barrett, he looked a lot better after a move from fullback to first-five once Harry Plummer went off.

After three rounds where the Barrett magic of old has flickered between bouts of ordinary kicking from the back and an occasional wariness about taking contact, he looked far more at home leading the attack from the front line. His late intervention down the left paved the way for Mark Tele’a’s stunning go-ahead try for the Blues.

But the most composed, and, indeed, complete No.10 on show was probably Harry Godfrey, the Hurricanes’ 22-year-old.

Godfrey scored all of his team’s 19 points in the first half – a well-taken try, which he converted, and four penalties. He kicked a conversion and penalty (from 48 metres) in the second half, too, for a haul of 23 points.

II’s early days but Godfrey has a look of a young Beauden Barrett and the Hurricanes weren’t the same once he was replaced in the second half.

The 49-34 victory by the Chiefs over the Brumbies in Hamilton was played out on a knife-edge.

Like so many already this season, it was another classic. But it could have been disastrous for the Chiefs, who took control only in the final three minutes via a Josh Jacomb penalty and converted Anton Lienert-Brown try.

The Chiefs won, yes, but they lost talismanic fullback Damian McKenzie to a knee injury when Lienert-Brown rolled back in a ruck straight into McKenzie’s right leg, which appeared to hyper-extend.

It was a nasty-looking injury and the same knee that McKenzie injured (ruptured ACL) in 2019.

There will be updates this week ahead of the Chiefs’ difficult trip to Lautoka to play the Drua, but there was some positive signs in the way McKenzie was able to put weight on it as he limped to the sideline.

"It was good to see him walk, or limp, off the field," coach Clayton McMillan said afterwards. "He’s a tough rooster. He’ll hopefully bounce back pretty quick."

In round one, Moana Pasifika were done in the final seconds of their match against the Force in Perth by a converted try from near the end of the Earth. After the 45-44 defeat, it must have been a glum journey home across Australia and the Tasman Sea.

It was a much shorter journey home after their round three fixture at North Harbour Stadium against the Highlanders but — unfortunately — the result was the same and the disappointment potentially more acute.

Moana, down 31-10 at halftime, scored 19 points in the second half — led again by skipper Ardie Savea. Unfortunately, they failed to find the penalty they were looking for in the final minutes and succumbed 31-29.

“We got out of jail,” Highlanders coach Jamie Joseph admitted.

One of the few positives for Moana was the crowd – between 6000 and 7000 (depending on reports) — easily their best for a home game.

This performance may have attracted a few more to their cause.

The Force dealt to Moana in the most painful way in round one and got a taste of their own medicine at the hands of the Reds in Perth on Saturday night.

Up by three points with exactly one minute to play, the Reds won an attacking lineout and overpowered the Force for a 28-24 victory to finish what was another outstanding round where the lowest points total among the five matches was the Force's 24, and the largest margin of victory was five points.