{"id":11029,"date":"2012-06-02T22:36:07","date_gmt":"2012-06-02T20:36:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/06\/rugby-four-try-tikoirotuma-puts-chiefs-on-brink-of-playoffs\/"},"modified":"2012-06-02T22:36:07","modified_gmt":"2012-06-02T20:36:07","slug":"rugby-four-try-tikoirotuma-puts-chiefs-on-brink-of-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/rugby-four-try-tikoirotuma-puts-chiefs-on-brink-of-playoffs\/","title":{"rendered":"Rugby-Four-try Tikoirotuma puts Chiefs on brink of playoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

June 2<\/span> (Reuters) – Asaeli Tikoirotuma scored four tries as
\nthe Waikato Chiefs all but secured a Super Rugby playoffs berth
\nwith a 41-34 victory over an Auckland Blues side that refused to
\nroll over at North Harbour Stadium in Albany on Saturday.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The victory consolidated the Chiefs’s lead at the top of the
\nSuper Rugby standings as they moved to 58 points following the
\nbonus-point win for scoring five tries.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Teams that achieved 57 points or more in the standings last
\nyear made the top-six playoffs.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“We are definitely happy with the five points. They were
\nhard earned,” Chiefs captain Liam Messam said in a pitchside
\ninterview. “It was a tough game and full credit to the Blues
\nthey really took it to us.”<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Tikoirotuma’s fourth try turned out to be the matchwinner,
\nthough it had appeared his third, when he finished a brilliant
\ncounter-attacking move that had given the Chiefs a 34-20 lead,
\nwas seemingly the final nail in the Blues’ coffin.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The Auckland side, who are second from bottom in the
\nstandings and have been disappointing all season, however,
\nfinally showed some of the form and spirit that had many picking
\nthem as title contenders before the season started.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The home side fought back when Chiefs lock Michael
\nFitzgerald became the third player yellow carded by referee
\nChris Pollock for sparking a fight, after home flanker Steven
\nLuatua and Waikato winger Maritino Nemani were sinbinned for
\ndangerous “tip” tackles in the first half.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The Blues used their numerical advantage to score two
\nconverted tries from Rudi Wulf and Rene Ranger, the latter a
\nsuperb individual effort when he broke from an uncontested ruck
\nand sprinted 60 metres down field, shrugging off several
\ndefenders.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The Blues had doggedly stuck with the Chiefs throughout the
\nmatch, despite being pinned inside their own territory, and went
\ninto halftime level at 20-20 after Lachie Munro converted his
\nown try following a superb break by Ranger.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Blues centre Francis Saili had also scored an early try,
\nwhich Munro converted and added two penalties for the home side.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Tikoirotuma and inside centre Sonny Bill Williams scored
\nfirst half tries for the visitors, while flyhalf Aaron Cruden
\nmatched Munro with two conversions and two penalties.\t<\/p>\n

(Reporting by Greg Stutchbury in Wellington; Editing by John
\nO’Brien)<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\u00a9 Thomson Reuters 2012 All rights reserved<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

June 2 (Reuters) – Asaeli Tikoirotuma scored four tries as the Waikato Chiefs all but secured a Super Rugby playoffs berth with a 41-34 victory over an Auckland Blues side that refused to roll over at North Harbour Stadium in Albany on Saturday. The victory consolidated the Chiefs’s lead at the top of the Super […]<\/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-11029","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\/11029","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=11029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11029\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}