A LATE PENALTY try saw the Waikato Chiefs sneak home over the Auckland Blues 21-19, while the NSW Waratahs picked up their first bonus point with a seven-try hiding of the Sunwolves in Super Rugby on Saturday.
When the Chiefs lost playmaker Damian McKenzie after half an hour, the Blues rallied to hit the front 19-14 by half-time. They did not surrender the lead until a costly yellow card saw their scrum falter seven minutes from the final whistle.
The result lifted the Chiefs to five wins from six games while the Blues sank to one win from six.
The Waratahs, meanwhile improved their record to four wins and a draw from six games. But despite a crushing victory in Tokyo their lack of bonus points kept them second in the Australian conference behind the Melbourne Rebels.
In Hamilton the Blues had seemed on track to break their unwanted record of no away victories against the neighbouring Chiefs since 2011.
They defended heroically for most of the second half to protect a five-point lead until lock Jack Goodhue was yellow-carded and an underpowered Blues scrum conceded the match-winning seven-point penalty try for the Chiefs.
“We created plenty of opportunities throughout the game but, gee, we didn’t finish many,” said a relieved Chiefs captain Sam Cane.
“What was pleasing was we didn’t get too frustrated: the composure in the last 15 (minutes) was pretty pleasing.”
Blues captain James Parson was pleased with his side’s improvement in defence and discipline compared to last week’s shellacking by the Coastal Sharks, although in the end it was discipline that let them down.
“Ill-discipline has cost us the game, the yellow card, and obviously you saw what happened at scrum time. The big factor was we were down a man and they took it to us and got the penalty try,” Parsons said.
The Blues made a promising start, with penalties by Stephen Perofeta in the first and third minutes putting them up 6-0.
The Chiefs came into the game with a penalty to McKenzie, who followed up by doubling around Johnny Faauli to send Sean Wainui over, and 10 minutes into the game the home side were in front.
But no Chiefs player would score again against the tightened Blues defence.
McKenzie and Perofeta traded penalties to have the Chiefs ahead 14-9 when McKenzie left the field, and the Blues regained the lead with a try to Parsons converted by Perofeta, who also landed a fourth penalty.
It put the Blues five points ahead, a margin they held for 35 minutes until the Chiefs’ late penalty try.
In Tokyo, scrum-half Jake Gordon bagged two tries as the Waratahs overpowered the winless Sunwolves 50-29.
After the score was locked at 7-all early on, the Waratahs powered away to outscore the Sunwolves seven tries to four.
The Sunwolves, bottom in the Australia conference, host the bottom New Zealand team the Blues in Tokyo next weekend.
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If you’re a sports fan at all the photo (and the story) of George O’Connor is one of the greatest ever taken.
Nonsense. If you like your GAA it has meaning. If not, it’s some dude in a god-awful kit praying.
It goes much further “that a fella in a god awful kit praying” I’m not from Wexford and think its a great shot, anyone with an appreciation for sport and is filled in a little on the back story would appreciate this I’d imagine!!
As a Limerick woman, 1996 broke my heart. :( But Wexford was always a great sporting county.
The 90′s was a fantastic decade for hurling !!
I wouldn’t call Liam Dunne breaking Gary Kirby’s fingers “sporting”. Nor Eamon Scallan’s red card after a filthy pull on Stephen McDonagh.
It’s upto Kirby to.protect his hand.
Are you for real?! I’d like to see you “protect your hand” from a filthy wild swing like that, where no genuine attempt was made to make contact with the ball. Dunne deliberately targeted Kirby, Limerick’s main scoring threat.
Wexford deserved to win the game, no qualms there. But Dunne will never be forgiven for that and many other dirty pulls throughout his career.
Kirby was no threat from play and we didn’t concede to many frees. It wasn’t a dirty stroke and liam Dunne never pulled a dirty stroke. He was short for a cb and had to pull in the air which sometimes got him into trouble. Perfectly within the rules. Gary Kirby,john Troy,martin comerford were a shower of women. The Brian o meara incident was just terrible refereeing
Kirby was no threat from play because Dunne made sure he had to play the whole game with a fractured finger.
Dunne never pulled a dirty stroke? Are we talking about the same Liam Dunne here?! Not even the most partisan of Wexford fans would claim he never pulled a dirty stroke!
As much as I love dancing on tables to Dancing at the Crossroads you can’t beat The Purple and Gold!
“It is a beauty to behold”
Hon Wexford, beat the dubs now tomorrow evening and we’ll forget all the heartbreaks hows that.
Hill 16 . Dublin only.
Wexford definitely produces the best sporting songs, Purple & Gold, Dancing at the crossroads & Boolavogue. They certainly beat “Dungarvan my home town” although “don’t stop believing” has become the unofficial Waterford anthem.
What’s that “hill 16. Dublin only” bollox I see poppin up here n there about?
As a regular Hill-goer, we love to spot the odd couple of fans from the other county mixed in having the craic, that’s what it’s all about.. everyone is welcome on the Hill
I’d always support Wexford after ourselves in Waterford. We both know the pain of so many nearly days & crushing defeats but also the delight of those long-awaited good days. Sunny South-East united :)
24. You’ve cause a riot in Quinns/Coppers after hearing the epic first words ‘I will remember as a young boy….’
25. You just can’t get it into your head that Dublin (DUBLIN!) are favourites to beat Wexford in Wexford Park.
26. You’ve stopped in Arklow for chips on the way home from another Croker defeat.
27, You know all the words to the players bit in ‘Dancing at the Crossroads’ (Damien Fitzhenry, Ger Cushe, Sean Flood, Rod Guiney, Liam Dunne, Colm Kehoe, Billy Byrne, Martin Storey, John O’Connor, Tom Dempsey, George O’Connor, ADRIANFENLONANDLARRYOGORMANNN!)
28. All the bingo halls were empty. And all the masses finished early.
Don’t forget the ’97 remix with all the clubs at the end! They always saved the best team til last!
Forgot to mention the 4 in a row all Ireland football titles.
Take that Kerry
Skurdinky skurdaw!
Deadly desh article, saan.
It’s quaren good boy!
Who says “Skurdinky skurdaw” ? Scalders ?
No scalders anyway, I’m from Enniscorthy and never heard the saying…
Love going on the piss with my Wexford friends!
Great stuff by Billy & all this week.
Strawberries… You forgot to mention tha STRAWBERRIES!!! And the Carne Potatoes!?
Why wasn’t Liam Sprat given a mention???
Did ye forget Jim Bolger!!
Aaahhh Wexford isn’t too bad… At least it’s full of dubs
Depends if you’re there on a court day or not :P
24. No one cares
How high is that horse of yours?
18 hands.
I’m with ya, couldn’t give a rats arse about it, the only good thing about the Wexford football and hurling teams is that when there’s a match on it takes a lot of the yokels off the streets, and even out of the county sometimes! Pity they couldn’t stay gone….
WiFi signals have really improved these days to make it so far under bridges
You mean a GPRS, 3G or 4G signal there Bilbo, but I get ya all the same, not trolling though, no point in trying to troll the Irish rednecks, the majority of the people I’m talking about aren’t online reading the news, they’re already half jarred in their locals. Good luck at the game if you’re going tomorrow Bilbo, hopefully a huge sinkhole will open under the stadium and raise the average iq of the nation quite substantially.
48 to 1 at the moment Bilbo, didn’t expect so many rednecks to be reading an online news site! I’m impressed!
Redneck is mostly an southern American term, are you American?
Nah I used the term “Irish redneck” in the comment before, thought it would carry over in the mind of anyone who read it! Have you ever been to a club game on a Sunday morning? I used to live by a GAA ground and the stuff we saw going on would remind ya of the stereotypical rednecks seen in American movies. If the shoe fits…..
Monkable. You are just a sorry fool. Get a life kid.
Don’t you think it ironic for someone to assert or create a social stereotype based upon what field he lived close to and that it resembles something from a fictional American movie?
No problem Thomas, I’ll get right on that. And no it’s not really that ironic is it Bilbo? I’m mostly talking about the away teams crowd coming in from the schticks to support their parish club. Granted there were freaks in the home parish too, I can remember watching two mothers arguing over something in the small crowd gathered on the sidelines one day, both from the home club which makes it more bizarre, but whatever was said between them incensed one of them enough to take one of her kids used nappies that she had put in the prams compartment and flung it into the face of the other woman. Of course a brawl between a host of the home clubs supporters broke out, and the away fans didn’t want to be left out so some of them came flooding across the pitch to join in.
Your kind of people Bilbo? Or Irish rednecks? I’m not saying they’re all like that, that would be like saying all soccer fans are louts or all rugby fans are snobs, but still we used to see terrible stuff occasionally, sometimes funny, sometimes downright disgusting. Enough to turn me off GAA games and its supporters for life!
Well I’ve honestly never seen that or anything happen at a Gaa game that wouldn’t be present in all sports. Most games are community based, and full of good spirit.. on the contrary tarring everyone with the same brush is exactly what you’re doing you said you’d prefer for everyone in the stadium to be swallowed up.you contradicted yourself in the same comment “enough to turn me off Gaa supporters for life” I’m still surprised you don’t get the irony in the term “irish rednecks” but I suppose that’s besides the point really.
You cant expect tolerance and diversity when you’ve just written off an entire supermarket because one carton of milk was sour..
Yawn…..
@Monkable P… No soup for you!
Loved it all but Mick Wallace. Don’t want to see that tax evader ever connected to Wexford. ever again pink shirt or not. Let’s just celebrate our sporting history and not our cute hoor politicians.
Shut up
This is the best read ever produced by the score or the journal.thank you