Bad weather, worse Blues

Blues 9 Chiefs 30

It was a great night for ducks but not such a good one for rugby and the 30,000 bedraggled souls who dipped into the darkest reaches of their wallets for this last hurrah.

And it was most definitely a very bad night for the Blues who, towards the end, looked like a team that had been gathered from the local boozers an hour before kick-off and told to give it a hurl.

The Chiefs, to be honest, weren't a whole lot better but they stuck to their knitting and scored three easy tries through David Hill, Sosene Anesi and Byron Kelleher in the second half to make their bus trip back to Hamilton all the merrier.

It's hard to say where the Chiefs had the edge. The set pieces were evenly matched and, for once, Marty Holah didn't have it all his own way in the loose.

Out wide both teams had their moments, with Sitiveni Sivivatu popping up effectively for the visitors and Ben Atiga producing the odd spark of magic.

What it really came down to was that the Chiefs made fewer errors and had enough ability to hold possession for long enough to create the opportunities for Hill and Kelleher.

The Blues, on the other hand, were willing enough but still blighted by clumsy errors that drained their confidence and made it impossible to build momentum. None was more glaring than the shocking pass thrown by Isa Nacewa that went straight into the arms of the waiting Anesi who was able to canter home and send the crowd heading to the exits.

The fact that Luke McAlister kicked incessantly through the first half didn't help either. The Blues are a side chock full of runners, yet they insisted on kicking aimlessly for much of the game.

With so many errors and daft tactics on show, neither the Blues nor the Chiefs could ignite a fixture that carried the spice of a local derby as well as masquerading as a pseudo-All Black trial for the Irish series next month.

The first 60 minutes were about as dull as any produced in living memory and while things got a bit frantic in the final quarter, no one really had the poise or confidence to convince they were succeeding by design rather than good luck.

And that is kind of hard to fathom as the prospect of test jerseys being on the line should have brought this game to the boil.

The local derby issue was perhaps a red herring. With both teams out of contention, pride was the only reward on offer for the two collectives. At the best of times pride is one of those intangibles that sounds like it really should be a motivational force when in truth most players would struggle to spell it yet alone understand all its connotations.

When it comes to dead rubbers, pride means zip. So it was a night for individuals and how they could advance their test claims.

Some such as the once-again excellent Sam Tuitupou enforced their claim. Tuitupou was denied much of an opportunity but did make one memorable charge up the right flank that saw him bounce out of five tackles before he was halted.

Bernie Upton's battle with Greg Rawlinson was a non-event and Jono Gibbes and Jerome Kaino would probably say it was honours even.

Blues 9 (L. McAlister 3 pens).

Chiefs 30 (D. Hill, S. Anesi, B. Kelleher tries; Hill 3 cons, 3 pens).