Last home game of the season,a local derby, coming off a big win against the Lions, the scene was set for the Blues to finish well after a disappointing season.
With the rebuilding of Eden Park its always good to get in to Ticketmaster early to get your tickets and when you see another full house in the reduced capacity, its good to walk up with your pre printed tickets and find your seat, ready to enjoy the evening.
Heavy rain in the afternoon softened up the paddock, and a good Autumn evening in Auckland made the prospects of a good open game a good possibility. The usual fireworks, The Sky City Cheerleaders and an explosive entrance for the players always sets a good tone to the night.
The understrenghth chiefs were under pressure right from the start, it was only the off night of Stephen Bretts boot, and some resolute defence that kept the early score down, until Paul Williams and the fine Benson-Stanely who gave the Blues a deserved first half lead of 12-6 .
The Blues continued to push forward at the start of the 2nd half and were rewarded with some well worked tries to push the lead up. Mathewson, one of the stand outs of the night stole through after some good work by the forwards, along with the nimble Wulf having another good night dotting down 2 fines tries, aided by some good work by Ranger in offlaoading on the 2nd one. Some loose marking spoiled the night for the Blues late on to let the hard working Meesam and winger Tokula in for soft converted tries to make it a bit less miserable on the short journey home for a tired Chiefs team, who must be glad the season is over. 30-20 final score.
The Blues have some positives to take after the last 2 games. Looking back over the season, a bad 2nd Half against the Caines, along with a wee bit of luck and stonger defence in a couple of earlier games against the Warritahs Stormers and Cheetahs and The Blues season would have looked a lot better. Great wins against the Bulls Brumbies and Reds should have given them enough confidence to see them through the season, but inconsistencey was there downfall, but hopefully Par Lam will have seen enough to be positive about next seasons Super 15 .
Overall , not the best rugby game this season, but the enthusiastic Eden Park crowd have probably seen enough to be looking forward to next year, with the Backs in full flow, Toeava, Big Joe, Wulf, McCallister, Benson Stanely, along with Brett and Mathewson it is a formidable back line, and with our Äll Blacks in the pack and the likes of Kilpatrick and McCartney getting some good game time it does look brighter .