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Live: Blues vs Highlanders | Super Rugby Aotearoa
By RugbyPass
Follow all the action on the RugbyPass live blog from the Super Rugby Aotearoa clash between the Blues and Highlanders at Eden Park in Auckland.
Keep up to date with the latest score, stats and join the conversation from anywhere in the world in our Live Match Centre (click here).
Super Rugby Aotearoa returns to Eden Park - where the Blues attracted a mammoth 43,000 strong crowd in round one of the competition. Both the Blues and the visiting Highlanders are undefeated in the competition to date.
The Blues dealt to the Hurricanes two weeks ago then travelled down to Hamilton to record a first win in the Waikato in since 2011 and set a new franchise record for away wins in a row.
The Highlanders, meanwhile, beat the odds and scored a last-minute win over the Chiefs in Dunedin in round one, courtesy of a 35-metre drop goal from Bryn Gatland.
Neither side has tinkered with their squads much since their last matches. The Highlanders have brought Scott Gregory in at fullback in place of Vilimonoi Koroi but there's still no sign of All Blacks pivot Josh Ioane, meaning Mitch Hunt again gets the reins in the 10 jersey. The Blues have made no changes to the team that unravelled the Chiefs last week, instead opting to maintain continuity.
The last eight Super Rugby matches between the Blues and Highlanders at Eden Park have seen each team pick up four wins apiece, despite the Highlanders leading at half-time in six of the games in that span.
All Blacks and Highlanders flanker Shannon Frizell has scored four tries over his last two encounters with the Blues in Auckland while Rieko Ioane managed two in the two sides' previous encounter.
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Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
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