Chiefs beat the Blues for fifth straight Super Rugby win
By AFP
Last Updated: 12/04/16 11:18am
Super Rugby pacesetters the Chiefs had to dig deep to claim a 29-23 win over the Blues in a frantic New Zealand derby in Hamilton.
The Chiefs outscored their opponents by five tries to two but the game was in the balance until the dying minutes, when All Black lock Brodie Retallick's five-pointer capped a superb return from injury.
The result takes the Chiefs' winning streak to five matches, cementing their place at the top of the table and confirming their status as the form team of this year's competition.
It also extends their dominance over the Blues to 10 straight victories, dating back to June 2011, although both the Chiefs and Aucklanders took a deserved bonus point from the match.
While the Tana Umaga-coached Blues have been inconsistent this year, Chiefs skipper Sam Cane said they were always going to lift when facing their North Island rivals.
"If you read the paper you'd think we were going to blow them off the park but we know the history of these Chiefs-Blues clashes and they had a point to prove," he said.
"We knew we'd have to grind it out."
The Chiefs took an early lead when prop Mitchell Graham picked up Brad Weber's speculative pass from the sideline and touched down.
Their second try came when Charlie Ngatai took off from deep in his own half after a lineout steal, dodging two defenders to set up a Shaun Stevenson try.
The Blues created plenty of chances but let themselves down with poor discipline and handling errors, although two Ihaia West penalties cut the gap to 10-6 at half-time.
Their execution improved with two tries just after the restart, the first a spectacular effort from Melani Nanai, who gathered a kick on half-way and zig-zagged through the Chiefs defence.
Reiko Ioane scored another two minutes later, bouncing off two tacklers to give the Blues a 20-10 lead.
But they could not hold on to the lead as Aaron Cruden clawed back a try for the Chiefs then set up another for Seta Tamanivalu to put them ahead 22-20.
It was desperate, end-to-end play in the final 10 minutes but Retallick sealed it when he broke free from a crush of bodies and stretched his lanky frame over the line.
Blues fly-half West slotted a penalty from the final play to claim a losing bonus point.