Blues edge Hurricanes

Albany - The Blues beat the Hurricanes 32-29 (half-time 19-19) in a Super Rugby warm-up match here at North Harbour's QBE Stadium on Friday.

“It was a big step up from last week’s game especially in how we used and protected our own ball,” coach John Kirwan told the Blues’ official website.

“The set piece was still quite good although we need to be more accurate and need to work harder on our defence as we were broken open a few times.

“That said it was encouraging and now we can continue to work hard and look forward to giving our fans something to cheer about here at North Harbour next weekend.”

The Blues opened the scoring when big midfielder George Moala broke open the defence to score before the Hurricanes found holes in the defence to grab three tries. The Blues found Ihaia West on target with the boot while Ben Lam scored a runaway try from an Akira Ioane break to level matters at 19-19 at half time.

The Blues, with a number of changes, shored up the defence and pressured the Hurricanes in the second half rewarded with a try to Blake Gibson with another by Tevita Li disallowed.

The home team moved out to a 32-24 lead before giving up a final try on full-time.

The Blues start their Super Rugby campaign against the Chiefs at Eden Park in Auckland next Saturday, while the Hurricanes face the Lions at Ellis Park in Johannesburg next Friday night.

Scorers:

Blues:

Tries: Moala, Lam, Gibson
Conversion: Hickey
Penalties: West (4), Hickey

Hurricanes:

Tries: Thomson, Shields, Savea (2), Fifita
Conversions: Woodward (2)

Teams:

Blues:
15. Lolagi Visinia, 14. Ben Lam, 13. Hamish Northcott, 12. George Moala, 11. Tevita Li, 10. Ihaia West, 9. Jimmy Cowan, 8. Steven Luatua, 7. Brendon O’Connor, 6. Akira Ioane, 5. Culum Retallick, 4. Hayden Triggs, 3. Angus Ta'avao, 2. James Parsons, 1. Tony Woodcock

Substitutes (from): Greg Pleasants-Tate, Matt Moulds, Sam Prattley, Nic Mayhew, Will Lloyd, Joe Edwards, Blake Gibson, Kara Pryor, Simon Hickey, Francis Saili, Pita Ahki, Matt Vaega, Frank Halai, Bryn Hall, Jamison Gibson-Park, Josh Bekhuis

Hurricanes:
15 Nehe Milner-Skudder, 14 Cory Jane, 13 Matt Proctor, 12 Rey Lee-Lo, 11 Jason Woodward, 10 James Marshall, 9 TJ Perenara, 8 Blade Thomson, 7 Ardie Savea, 6 Brad Shields, 5 James Broadhurst, 4 Jeremy Thrush, 3 Jeffery Toomaga-Allen, 2 Brayden Mitchell, 1 Reggie Goodes.

Substitutes (from): Leni Apisai, Chris Eves, Ben May, Geoff Cridge, Vaea Fifita, Mark Abbott, Callum Gibbins, Frae Wilson, Otere Black, Vince Aso

Referee: Chris Pollock