When Mark Twain talked about lies, damned lies and statistics, he clearly wasn’t referencing the 2024 Super Rugby champions, the Blues. Their 41-10 win was not only a superb exhibition of wet-weather, finals football, it tied directly to every meaningful metric. Wrap your head around the Chiefs being forced to make 221 tackles to the Blues’ 84.
133 rucks won by the Blues, at 98.5 per cent efficiency. Twelve penalties to five.
66 per cent possession. And the most telling of all: 77.6 per cent territory, with an incredible 45.
4 per cent of the match being played in the Chief’s defensive 22. That’s an illustration of a highly cohesive team operating at extreme efficiency. The many outstanding individual performances were merely a few cherries scattered on top.
Those cherries included the Ioane brothers saving their best work for their final match together; their creation of a try for Caleb Clarke in no space at all, quite special. Clarke, reborn this year, all explosive power and thrust, is now the scorer of a hat-trick in a Super Rugby final. And if the provider of his third try, halfback Finlay Christie, wasn’t quite using Aaron Smith’s low-flying missile launcher, he was showing the vision and execution which will frank his All Black selection later today.
What about Harry Plummer, sneaky better than solid all year at 10, drilling an outstanding 7/7 from the kicking tee? Highest praise however was reserved for skipper Patrick Tuipulotu, who in the space of a few d.
