The Auckland Blues booked their place in the semifinals of the Super 14 rugby competition when they beat the Western Force 33-6 on Friday.
Despite being early pace-setters this season, three consecutive losses had put the Blues’ semifinal chances in jeopardy.
But their 27-point win means they cannot be dislodged from the top four and they must now wait to see who their semifinal opponents will be.
They scored four tries to none and, by gaining a bonus point, have even given themselves a chance of hosting a semifinal.
Both sides struggled to come to terms with the slippery conditions caused by steady rain in the 90 minutes leading up to the game and persistent showers during it.
The Blues went to the break leading 13-6, but they dominated play for the first 40 minutes and should probably have led by more.
Luke McAlister opened the scoring with a penalty, which was soon matched by Force flyhalf Matt Giteau.
McAlister kicked a second penalty after 22 minutes and from the restart the Blues scored the try of the match — a spectacular 75m effort involving almost the entire team.
Flyhalf Isa Nacewa took the ball just inside his own 22, slipped through two tackles and broke clear before giving the ball to McAlister, who raced another 40m before finding centre Isaia Toeava.
Toeava was brought down just short of the line but four phases later winger Rudi Wulf strolled over under the posts after the Force ran out of defenders.
Giteau kicked a penalty right on half-time to give the home team some hope heading into the second half but that advantage was lost straight after the restart.
The Force were in trouble at the scrum throughout the match and two minutes into the second half McAlister put the score out to 16-6 when Force prop Gareth Hardy was penalised right in front for not packing properly.
With 10 minutes to go the Blues made the game safe and booked their place in the semifinals when prop John Afoa crashed over.
Then two minutes later the Blues scored a controversial try when they took a quick line-out using the wrong ball.
Instead of calling them back for another throw in, the referee and touch judge allowed play to continue and All Black hooker Kevin Mealamu scored out wide.
They got their bonus point right on fulltime and underlined their forward dominance when the third member of the front row, Tony Woodcock, smashed his way over to secure the bonus point. — AFP
