Rugby: Erratic Blues edge to victory

Rene Ranger in attack during last night's Blues win. Photo / Getty Images

You could say that this match was the Blues all over - good stuff, bad stuff; magic here, mistakes there - and it was personified by Rene Ranger.

The winger has done passingly well at centre since Isaia Toeava's injury but he made an atrocious decision to go himself with four Blues team-mates set to score a try against a lone Reds defender, following a good run by Jerome Kaino.

It was the Blues all over - doing all the hard work well and then blowing the basics as the persistent rain fell at Ballymore.

However - and again it was the Blues all over - Ranger made amends a few minutes later. Hard-nosed No 8 Peter Saili crunched towards the line and made the first breach before throwing a steepling pass.

When it arrived out of the rain, Ranger was on the left wing. No one was quite sure why but he simply ignored the fact that most the Reds team was between him and the goal line about 20m away.

A prop off one foot, a fend and then he just powered through tackles. Three, four, five and six Reds tacklers couldn't stop him and he carried three over the line to score an excellent individual try.

And then there was Stephen Brett. Quality one moment, quirky the next, he missed key kicks at goal and a piece of misfortune got the Reds off to the best possible start.

Two minutes in, Brett poked through a low kick. He hit it hard enough to have been entitled to believe that no one would interfere with it but Reds halfback and skipper Will Genia has what used to be called flypaper hands.

The ball stuck like a stinging catch in the slips, Genia looked up to see more space available than a Gold Coast property development and simply ran to the other end and scored without having to elude anybody.

Compare Brett's up-and-down stuff with Wallaby and Reds first five Quade Cooper's form. Previously as skittery a No 10 as you could hope to see - brilliant one moment, blisteringly bad the next - Cooper has built more consistency into his work and goalkicking.

He knocked over his penalties and that was the difference in the Reds' 13-8 lead at the break.

It might have taken them a while to find the gear stick but the Blues finally got their misfiring engine running smoothly in the second half.

With the rain still falling they used the pick-and-drive tactic to good effect, reducing the error rate and threatening as they had in the last stages of the first half.

The try they scored to get in front was notable for two things - Keven Mealamu and Anthony Boric. Boric had his best game for the Blues yet, but Mealamu was involved no fewer than six times in the build-up.

The Blues forwards picked and drove, and did it again and again - reducing the Reds to hapless makers of tackles in a searching period of play. It was a fine piece of captaincy, Mealamu leading from the front, as befitting a man who last night became the most capped player in Blues' history.

That deflated the Reds - and they almost stood idly by as Saili won a lineout, Daniel Braid missed a tackle and scampering halfback Alby Mathewson - another good Blues performer - scored easily.

It looked as if the Reds would crack but they came back strongly. They got a rolling maul going close to the Blues' line and prop Laurie Weeks scored the try that set up a thrilling finish. Cooper then got the collywobbles, missed the conversion and a kickable penalty that would have got the Reds in front.

The Reds are getting closer to what they used to be - a strong forward pack, good scrum and lineout and inventive backs like Genia, Cooper and winger Digby Ioane.

Those three sparked a raid that a desperate Blues somehow survived.

Then the Reds somehow survived a Mathewson kick and chase before the Blues won it with Rudi Wulf's 78th minute try, with Ranger again involved.

Reds: 18 (W. Genia, L. Weeks tries; Q. Cooper con, 2 pens)
Blues: 27 (R. Ranger, A. Boric, A. Mathewson, R. Wulf tries; S. Brett con, pen; L. Munro con). Halftime: 13-8.