{"id":308696,"date":"2023-06-16T10:50:00","date_gmt":"2023-06-16T10:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=308696"},"modified":"2023-06-16T14:01:24","modified_gmt":"2023-06-16T14:01:24","slug":"it-hurts-skippers-brutal-admission-in-finals-flogging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=308696","title":{"rendered":"'It hurts': Skipper's brutal admission in finals flogging"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leon MacDonald didn't hide away from the reality that his Blues<\/a> had been beaten, badly.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What promised to be a close contest was anything but as the Crusaders blew out to a 52-15 win in Christchurch<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Even that scoreline somewhat flattered the Blues, who scored two late tries in what was 80 minutes of pain.<\/p>\n

Watch the 2023 Super Rugby Pacific season on the home of rugby, Stan Sport.<\/strong><\/em> All matches streaming ad free, live and on demand<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The visitors were uncharacteristically error-prone; fumbling the ball, conceding turnovers, and giving away penalties.<\/p>\n

\"Coach<\/p>\n

"We just didn't dominate collisions early on or pretty much the majority of the game," said MacDonald.<\/p>\n

"Just the intensity in that contact area. We weren't at the level we needed to be. I don't think we carried with enough intent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"I thought our cleaners didn't arrive early enough\u2026 they were carrying, we were giving away our game line and that's basics of big-time rugby is dominating collisions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"For something we spoke about a lot, we weren't able to do it tonight."<\/p>\n

\"Harry<\/p>\n

MacDonald leaves the Blues in a better place than when he joined them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Blues were only 13th in his first season in 2019 and took them to the Super Rugby Pacific final in 2022.<\/p>\n

He'll join Crusaders coach Scott Robertson at the All Blacks as one of his assistants.<\/p>\n

"It hurts," said MacDonald.<\/p>\n

\"Fantastic<\/p>\n

"No one likes losing and definitely no one likes losing like that. The opportunity we had is gone now and that's the frustrating thing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"This team is a lot better than what they showed tonight. You only have to walk around the sheds to see that there's a lot of disappointment and frustration.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"It is sport, it's a cruel mistress, it hurts you. I just hope this group they stay tight and keep building on some good stuff that's been happening over the last few years.<\/p>\n

Blues captain Dalton Papalii said his side tried to get "too fancy" and ultimately paid the price.<\/p>\n

"Credit to the Crusaders, man," Papalii said.<\/p>\n

"They've set the standard for years now. Every time it comes to finals footy they go up another level.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Beauden<\/p>\n

"That first half, we just tried to get too fancy with the tips and back passes. We just didn't do our basics and that's the carry and clean.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"That's what we put our hat on all season and when we've played well we've done that well. We sort of took a backstep in that first half."<\/p>\n

"That's a cornerstone of our game," he said of the ruck and breakdown.<\/p>\n

"We always talk about we want to be dominant in that area and tonight we just weren't there. It just reflects on the score. It's disappointing."<\/p>\n

\"Crusaders<\/p>\n

The Crusaders will wait to see the result of the other semi-final, which will decide where the final is held.<\/p>\n

Should the Chiefs beat the Brumbies, the Chiefs will host the final. However, if the Brumbies get up, it'll be the Crusaders that host the decider.<\/p>\n

The Chiefs host the Brumbies in Hamilton on Saturday \ufeffwith coverage live and ad-free on Stan Sport from 4:30pm.<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Leon MacDonald didn't hide away from the reality that his Blues had been beaten, badly.\u00a0 What promised to be a close contest was anything but […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":308698,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308696"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=308696"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308696\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":308709,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308696\/revisions\/308709"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/308698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=308696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=308696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=308696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}