Rugby: Blues end campaign on winning note

Paul Williams of the Blues is tackled by Craig Clarke of the Chiefs. Photo / Getty Images

The Blues closed out their Super 14 campaign with their seventh victory of the season, beating last year's runners-up the Chiefs 30-20 at Auckland tonight.

With nothing at stake in terms of the competition, the match was played at an entertaining pace and the Blues scored five tries to the Chiefs' two.

Blues wing Rudi Wulf was rewarded for his high work rate throughout the match with two second half tries.

The Blues took the game to the Chiefs from the kickoff but spent a fruitless 24 minutes hammering at the Chiefs' line as mistakes and poor ball retention coupled with tough defending from the Chiefs took their toll.

In just the third minute Rene Ranger threw a pass that found no-one with the Blues in a three-on-one situation on the right flank.

Blues first five-eighth Stephen Brett missed a penalty from in front.

Then the Chiefs held up Blues blindside flanker Peter Saili over the line with all this happening in the first 12 minutes.

Chiefs halfback Brendon Leonard was prominent during this period making tackles that snuffed out Blues threats, including one on Ranger who had the tryline filling his eyes.

Leonard went on to make an impression throughout the match with his quick hands and sniping jabs from behind the rucks.

The breakthrough for the Blues came when Wulf's bust down the middle ended with fullback Paul Williams dotting down in the corner in the 25th minute.

With the whole of the Blues backline running freely with the amount of possession they had Benson Stanley's try to give the Blues a 12-6 halftime lead was inevitable.

The Blues started the second half as they left off and twice their forwards were held up over the tryline in the first four minutes.

Alby Matthewson finally nipped through to put the finishing touches to another Blues attack.

The Chiefs fought back with a Liam Messam try that Trent Renata converted.

Wulf put the game out of reach with his two tries.

Chiefs wing Save Tokula produced a brilliant solo run for the try of the night to close the game out but it was too little too late to prevent the Chiefs suffering an eighth loss of a season that promised so much better than that at the start.

- NZPA