Elliott Smith: ZB Rugby Commentator ahead of the Super Rugby Final between the Blues and the Chiefs

Tomorrow’s Super Rugby Final is set to be an intense match. 

The Blues face off against the Chiefs at a sold-out Eden Park, kicking off just after 7pm.  

ZB’s Rugby Commentator Elliott Smith told Mike Hosking that the Chiefs have come out of nowhere in the last couple weeks. 

The Blues were expected to face the Hurricanes in the finals, the Chiefs entering the playoffs sitting fourth on the table.  

He said they’ve stepped up not just one or two levels, but, to use a sporting cliché, they seem to have gone up and grown an extra leg, finding their feet and swept away the hurricanes on their home turf. 

“It sets up an interesting final.” 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
A Super Rugby final time. Of course, Blues face the
Chiefs that sold out Eden Park kickoff just after seven.
Eliot Smith's going to be doing the business for us
and he's well this morning to me morning. Have you
ever been to our hoo's by the way, happy? No,
I haven't happiest city in the world.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Oh on the list.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
City of smiley people. Well you'll be treated. We're excited
about the all black ship, by the way, I.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Think we are. There's a little bit of intrigued. Squad's
out on Monday evening first first name by Scott Robertson.
Intrigue as to how here the shots down the squad?

Speaker 1 (00:25):
Yeah, Scott Robertson thinks. So as far as the physics
is concerned, this weekend it's one of those weird things,
isn't If you're sitting in duneed and you're not really gripped,
are you, because it's Blues and Chiefs and it's but
as a game, it's got potential, hasn't it.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
That's right? And the Chiefs have come out of nowhere
really after the last couple of weeks. They head into
a plow from the fourth but the Blues and Hurricanes
were the story and they were expected to meet in
the final. But the Chiefs have stepped up to not
just one or two levels, but they seem to have
gone up and grown an extra leak to to use
a sporting cliche, over the last couple of weeks. They
didn't look like it during the regular season at all,
but have found their feet swept away the Hurricanes last

(00:56):
week on the Hurricanes home to the Blues have been
one of the form teams or the form team throughout
the entire competition, so it sits up an interesting final.
But you're right, from a neutral perspective in New Zealand,
yet it'll be a good game, certainly not in an Australia.
Which is the major issue for this comp is that
if you're a Brumbies fan or a Warritas fan, you
lost interest week.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
See, there was the story, wasn't The Brumbies sort of
survived but they were not up to much and the
Rebels got booted out and the whole thing's just to
shambles to sell out. By the way, it's a genuine
sellout in genuine interest, which is good because the pictures
I saw last week were shocking, terrible.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
Yeah, there was thing. We got twelve thousand max at
the in for that for the Brumby semi final. Look,
the Rumby's on a draw card at the best of times.
The weather was poor. You can make any excuses you want.
Friday night an Auckland, terrible place to try and get
across the city. But for a semi final of what
is supposed to be a prestigious rugby competition, it was
a very very poor crowd. But they've sold at every
ticket they've got going tomorrow night.

Speaker 3 (01:46):
So just so the Chiefs if they win, what is
that an upset A boil over? I think it is
an upset, Okay, from coming and forth from the season.
They lost to the Hurricanes twice, they lost to the Brumbies,
they lost to the Crusaders, they lost to you know,
the Reds as well. So they didn't have a great
regular season.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
But they've stepped up when it counts, which probably speaks
to the fact that in this the way the competition
is run at the moment, if you target two weeks
you can probably get away with winning.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
It's how you've finished that counts.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
When you look at the Crusaders and what they did
last year, they were looking a little bit creaking at times,
and then came through at the end, demolished the Blues
in the semi final, beat the Chiefs and home saw.
I suspect the Chiefs might have taken a few listens
out of them.

Speaker 1 (02:24):
The two Ploto thing is that as remarkable as they
seem to be making.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
You never seen anything like it. Wow, medial ligament. He
out for six to seven weeks, gone from the all Blacks,
and then all of a sudden he comes in on Monday,
does a gym seession, does a field session.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
I don't have to go see. I had a knee
injury and it's taken months.

Speaker 3 (02:39):
And you haven't played super Aby since and I've played No.

Speaker 1 (02:41):
I don't played no super ra it all and it
took months to rehabit. So I don't know what the
hell he's on. So call it for me. So Blues
by five, all right? So good, tight game, I hope
so and yeah, I think And the forecast whether in
track looks fabulous.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
Much better than it has been an Auckland in recent weeks.
So hoping the dry track and that should bring both teams.
There's still all black spots on the liners here that
squads out Monday night, a chance to impress one last time.
But also you know blues dropbracking title first one in
twenty one years. Chiefs having one on one ten And
do you pace yourself for the call yourself? I do, yeah,
but you have to retine Mike, you've got on your mate.
Yeah go Well, nice to see you. Elliott Smith will

(03:16):
be calling it for us on ZB. For more from
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