As Sir John Kirwan paced nervously in the coach's box in the closing minutes at a mostly empty Eden Park, a smile at last broke out on his careworn face. Finally his Blues had managed a victory in this Super Rugby season of equal parts frustration and futility.
Finally, that seven-game losing streak (nine if you count last year) was over, courtesy of a nailbiting, knife-edge 16-14 Friday night victory over the Brumbies.
In what was most certainly a game of two halves, the Blues nearly squandered an outstanding first stanza, and 13-0 lead, to trail 14-13 inside the last five minutes. The way their season had gone, they looked dead in the water. But somehow their luck finally turned. Ice-cool substitute five-eighth Ihaia West slotted a sideline penaltyto give the Blues the lead with three minutes left and then, after the final hooter, Brumbies halfback Nic White pushed wide a 49-metre penalty attempt that would have won the game.
When the smattering of Blues fans scattered around the cavernous stadium finally exhaled, an enormous cheer followed. Their team were finally on the board – now 1-7 and up to a positively giddy nine points on the standings. The Blues are adamant they can still salvage something from this campaign; now it's about embarking on a winning run every bit as devastating as their losing one. They are at least off to a start.
Dan Bowden bursts his way through to score for the Blues.
Kirwan, though, was just relieved to be on the board.
"My dad died of a heart attack and I don't think I need to go to the specialist for another few years because if it was going to go, it was going to be there," he said of a finish he couldn't bear to watch.
He was ecstatic at the cool, calm and collected way West did his job at the end, and undid the pressure he felt had been building on his side ever since the round-four home loss to the Lions.
"That was the class of the man. He nailed it," Kirwan added. "I couldn't watch. Imagine what he was feeling. He picked the ball up straight away and pointed to the posts. It's fantastic – something he'll remember for a long time, and so will I."
Skipper Jerome Kaino was just rapt to finally have a win to reflect on. It was a result he played a massive part in achieving too, shrugging off a late neck injury to continue a run of ferociously physical displays.
"Late in the game there was a feeling of deja vu, but it was a great feeling to see that [final] kick miss," Kaino said. "It was great of Ihaia to come on and keep a cool head …
I had to look to him for confirmation, and he was confident he could slot it."
Dan Bowden and George Moala also had polished games for the Kiwi side, and the home forwards enjoyed a fabulously dominant first 40.
That frantic finish had looked so unlikely after the Blues had led 13-0 at the break, with all their points coming from Bowden through a try, sideline conversion and a pair of three-pointers.
The Aussie outfit had been on the wrong side of a 7-1 first-half penalty count (though it did turn in their favour over the run home) and struggled for cohesion and accuracy.
The Blues made their big move round the half-hour mark when first Moala and Kaino got them within inches of the opening try, and then soon after Bowden ghosted through a big gap as the pressure finally told.
But then things got tight as a shaky third quarter by the hosts allowed the Brumbies to rattle off eight straight points – a try to replacement wing Lausi'i Taliauli and a Christian Lealiifano penalty – and set up a tighter finish than the Blues would have envisioned at halftime.
The Brumbies, piling on the pressure, finally snatched the lead seven minutes out and the small crowd steadied for the inevitable.
Instead, the Blues found themselves a hero. West hit, White missed and Kirwan finally had something to celebrate.
Blues 16 (Daniel Bowden try; Bowden 2 pens, con; Ihaia West pen), Brumbies 14 (Lausi'i Taliauli try; Christian Lealiifano 3 pens) HT: 13-0.
- Stuff
