The Blues went down to their fourth-straight loss of the Super Rugby campaign on Saturday as they lost 13 / 10 to the Lions at QBE Stadium in North Harbour.
Errors aplenty, low confidence in attack and a failure to turn pressure into points cost the Blues as they crashed to a disappointing home defeat.
Meanwhile, the Lions will take their smash and grab victory with both hands as they head to the Crusaders with a tour win under their belt.
The Lions had the chance to take a 3 / 0 lead on 10 minutes when the Blues inside backs were caught offside at scrum time. However, flyhalf Elton Jantjies was off target with a relatively easy shot and it almost cost the visitors in the resulting play, as Ihaia West broke upfield. Unfortunately for the Blues, loosehead prop Ofa Tu’ungafasi coughed up the ball 10m from the whitewash as an open start remained scoreless.
West did manage to break the deadlock on 22 minutes after the Lions infringed at ruck time in a surprisingly long wait for the game’s first points. Usually matches between these 2 saw high scores amassed, with last season’s fixture in Johannesburg seeing 75 points racked up.
3 More were added on 25 minutes via the boot of Jantjies to level matters when Blues lock Josh Bekhuis was caught offside, but there was a general mood of amazement that neither try-line had been breached, wing Melani Nanai having been held up the nearest moment.
The deadlock was finally broken from the resulting play though, as Jerome Kaino planted the ball at the base of the upright for a 3 / 10 lead. And that was how the score stayed going into the break, despite the Blues continuing to dominate on the Lions 22 against a spirited defence.
Unfortunately the occasion of Keven Mealamu’s record appearance did not live up to its billing as regular scrums and errors marred the game. Mealamu in fact left the field after 47 minutes as the veteran All Black hooker is eased into the new season. He hoped he would now watch a win.
Jantjies made Mealamu sweat on 50 minutes when he landed a long-range penalty goal to cut the lead to 4 points, but that seemed to rally the hosts, with Luke Braid leading the charge as the Blues set up camp on the Lions try-line. A 2nd try would possibly floor the visitors.
But it didn’t come from a sustained period of pressure, as poor decision making allowed the spirited Lions an easy out, which led to a shock score for the South Africans. It arrived when replacement scrumhalf Faf de Klerk sparked an attack before Jantjies found Ruan Combrinck for the left-hand corner. Jantjies’ excellent touchline conversion meant it was now 13 / 10 to the Lions with only 15 minutes remaining.
The Blues fans were shell-shocked in Albany and their team could have been 6 points down had De Klerk not tapped from a kickable position. But when Combrinck missed a penalty shot from distance soon after, one felt the Blues would have one more big opportunity to save their skin.
West would have that chance off the tee from wide out but his miss to level on 75 minutes summed up another disappointing day, as the Lions saw the game out to record their first victory of the campaign. For the Blues, serious work needs to be done before they face the Hurricanes.