Highlanders’ pipes plugged

It was the dance of the desperate on Friday night when the stuttering Blues came up against the winless Highlanders at Eden Park.

The Highlanders would have been regarded as favourites before the tournament started, with all their recent acquisitions – Tony Woodcock, old warhorse Brad Thorn and the much maligned Ma’a Nonu.

The Blues, on the other hand, started the season in barnstorming fashion beating the Hurricanes and sweeping the Crusaders out of the way as well.

However, they have been a bit unlucky in recent weeks, narrowly losing to the Bulls, Waratahs and Chiefs.

Both teams got under way with penalties before great counter-attacking play resulted in Ben Smith squeezing his way through the defenders to score.

The Blues hit back with a try to Steven Luatua.

The only other first-half try was scored by prop Angus Ta’vao’o.

Halftime: Blues 12, Highlanders 13.

I was glad the referee Steve Walsh took the initiative regarding Ma’a Nonu’s shoulder charge on Piri Weepu, by changing his initial call after seeing the replay on the ground’s big screen. The replay showed that the action was a blatant yellow card offence and it was refreshing to see a referee confident enough to change his original decision to the correct one.

The Blues took command in the second half with Rene Ranger setting up two great tries for Piri Weepu to run in and put the ball down.

Surely, Rene Ranger must be putting his hand up for All Black selection in June.

He is rock-solid in defence and explosive when counter attacking.

The Blues ran out victors 29-18 over the hapless Highlanders who can seem to do everything but win.

The Warriors were at home on Sunday to the tabletopping South Sydney Rabbitohs.

The Warriors had finally broken their drought, winning on Monday against the Cowboys.

South Sydney had won all their games so far this season and so would have been the red-hot favourites.

The Warriors had pretty much their best team with prop Russell Packer and crowd favourite Manu Vatuvei returning from injury to bolster the team.

The Warriors, from the outset, aimed to get the ball to the outside and stretch the defence and avoid getting caught in an arm-wrestle with the South’s forwards.

Matthew Elliot would have been proud of the way his team executed the game plan and challenged South’s defences.

However, despite all the early pressure from the men in black, it was the visitors who came away with the points due to a handling error allowing Nathan Merrit to zigzag through the defenders for a great try in the corner.

The home team’s halves pairing were intent on putting up attacking bombs in the opposition’s corner but the red and greens had a distinct height advantage and managed to defuse any high kicks.

Souths managed to score two more tries through Greg Inglis and Bryson Goodwin. Prop Ben Matulino scored the only try for the home team.

Fulltime: Souths 24 Warriors 22.