{"id":10131,"date":"2012-04-20T16:21:49","date_gmt":"2012-04-20T14:21:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/04\/rugby-delaney-delivers-as-highlanders-give-auckland-the-blues\/"},"modified":"2012-04-20T16:21:49","modified_gmt":"2012-04-20T14:21:49","slug":"rugby-delaney-delivers-as-highlanders-give-auckland-the-blues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/rugby-delaney-delivers-as-highlanders-give-auckland-the-blues\/","title":{"rendered":"Rugby-Delaney delivers as Highlanders give Auckland the Blues"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"articleLocation\">April 20<\/span> (Reuters) &#8211; The Otago Highlanders heaped more<br \/>\npressure on Auckland coach Pat Lam by beating the Blues 30-27 in<br \/>\na scrappy Super Rugby clash in Dunedin that was dominated by the<br \/>\nkickers.<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Highlanders flyhalf Mike Delaney kicked six penalties and a<br \/>\nconversion and the home side crossed for two tries to claim<br \/>\ntheir sixth win of the season and close the gap on the New<br \/>\nZealand Conference leaders, Waikato Chiefs.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The Blues showed a much more spirited performance than in<br \/>\nrecent weeks and started brightly as they looked to end a run of<br \/>\nfour consecutive defeats.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Rookie fullback Hadleigh Parkes put the Blues ahead in the<br \/>\nfourth minute after the Highlanders, looking rusty after coming<br \/>\noff a bye week, gifted away possession in their own 22.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Centre Shaun Treeby fumbled a pass from scrumhalf Aaron<br \/>\nSmith and the Blues moved the ball wide for Parkes to cross in<br \/>\nthe corner.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It was probably the exact opposite of how we wanted to<br \/>\nstart. We knew if we gave them a start they would be in it for<br \/>\nthe whole game,&#8221; Highlanders captain Jamie Mackintosh said in a<br \/>\npitchside interview.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Treeby did not dwell on the mistake and he was on hand to<br \/>\ndart clear for the Highlanders opening try eight minutes later<br \/>\nafter Delaney started the move with an exceptional reverse pass.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Both sides were then guilty of ill-discipline as the match<br \/>\nturned into a kicking duel with Delaney and Blues&#8217; flyhalf<br \/>\nGareth Anscombe trading efforts as the home side went in at<br \/>\nhalftime 16-14 ahead.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>A plethora of penalties followed at the start of the second<br \/>\nhalf as the lead changed hands frequently, prompting referee<br \/>\nBryce Lawrence to warn both sides but he somehow refrained from<br \/>\nshowing any yellow cards.<br \/>\n\u00a0 <span class=\"label\"><strong>Continued&#8230;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>April 20 (Reuters) &#8211; The Otago Highlanders heaped more pressure on Auckland coach Pat Lam by beating the Blues 30-27 in a scrappy Super Rugby clash in Dunedin that was dominated by the kickers. Highlanders flyhalf Mike Delaney kicked six penalties and a conversion and the home side crossed for two tries to claim their [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-10131","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10131\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}