Blues

Super Rugby Pacific: Force's furious comeback falls just short in thrilling loss to the Blues.

Sean Maloney and Andrew Mehrtens are joined by Justin Marshall from the Stan Sport sofa. "I think we turned a real corner tonight. The Force overcame the "world's worst preparation" to give the ladder-leading Blues an almighty scare in a wild Super Rugby clash in the west on Friday night.

The Blues have beaten Western Force 22-18 in a thrilling Super Rugby Pacific win in Perth.

"The last couple of minutes, we gave it our all." "Unfortunately, we couldn't come away with the win but (it's) a big step up from our lads. But the Australian underdogs couldn't find a match winner as the Blues held on for a desperate victory to remain on track for back-to-back titles.

The beauty of sport is that even the most ugly, scrappy contest can transform into an instant classic with a thrilling finish. So it…

“I think we turned a real corner tonight… Heading into half time after appearing to weather the Force storm in the opening minutes, it was a lethargic Blues that took to the field after the break. “You could just see in that game, the discipline and the mistakes we made out there, we just need to execute in those moments. “A lot of the issues we experienced early on in the season were probably around our attitude and mindset and some of the effort areas. When using Facebook to create or log in to an account, you need to grant The Roar permission to see your email address When using Facebook to create or log in to an account, you need to grant The Roar permission to see your email address

At HBF Park, Perth: Blues 22 (Sam Darry try 18min, Akira Ioane try 22min, AJ Lam try 30min; Beauden Barrett pen, 2 con), Western Force 18 (Manasa Mataele ...

Part of that was the poor play of the Kiwi outfit; and part was the hosts’ own gritty determination as they roared back behind second-half tries to Jeremy Thrush and Bo Abra. The Force, surviving an early yellow card in the second spell, showed all sort of tenacity to come roaring back. And those three clinical strikes gave them an advantage they would very much need at the end. The Blues produced maybe 20-odd minutes of quality rugby, turning an early 0-8 hole, into a 22-8 halftime advantage as they ran in three slick tries. At 22-8, the Blues looked to have laid a solid foundation over the first 40 minutes. In a match that finished at three tries apiece, it was only a poor night off the kicking tee from home marksman Bayley Kuenzle that handed the Kiwis their buffer.