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Still got the Blues

The Blues (Photo: Getty Images)

There used to be a saying in New Zealand rugby that went, “when Auckland rugby’s strong, NZ rugby’s strong”. These days if you asked any interested millennials to finish the same sentence they struggle. It’s not a criticism. It’s just that none of them were alive the last time Auckland was.

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As we approach Super Rugby’s own ½ time break, the only title the Blues have hope of winning is as the comp’s biggest basket case. After another season of failing to make the play-offs, can anyone honestly argue they’ve improved? Because Friday night’s bumbling win over the Reds did little to suggest otherwise.

They are still way too loose, commit far too many unforced errors and unnecessary offloads while their option taking remains as consistent as Donald Trump’s attitude to global warming. Surely those who run the franchise can see that this ill-disciplined, helter-skelter, risk-taking way of playing isn’t working?

Or perhaps they’re simply taking their lead from SANZAAR, the comp’s parent body and current world champion of sporting administrative idiocy? The comparisons between the two are chillingly compelling:

  • Too expansive too quickly
  • Not enough time taken to consolidate
  • Continual unnecessary risk-taking
  • An inability or pig-headed refusal to seize control of what can be controlled and/or what is actually working for you
  • An unexplained obsession with needing to do and try every attention-seeking miracle option available when all the paying public ask is for once just to play the percentages.

Having said all that, the Blues ongoing lack of onfield success is also quite puzzling. We can all see that what they keep doing is wrong, what’s more difficult to understand is why they keep doing it.

Game after game, season after season, disappointment after broken promise. If this was a relationship you’d have pulled out the old “it’s not you, it’s me” line years ago.

Is it a reflection of poor leadership or players that seem to maverick to care? They play like a team that is more interested in individual moment than collective achievement.

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Winning at sport comes down to many things, attitude being one of them. The Blues now do what the Hurricanes used to – they look flashy enough, play at breakneck speed, throw spectacular passes and regularly showcase their free-running ball-carrying try-scoring attacking ability. But. They lose all the close ones.

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The ruthlessness of winning, that pragmatic attitude that demands you control ball, wind down clock, suffocate opposition and WIN GAME is as absent this year as it was during Pat Lam’s last in charge. And there’s nothing on view right now that says anything will change anytime soon.

End on a positive? At least Tana Umaga knows the next game on Wednesday is seriously winnable. After watching the Lions crawl to the finish line in Whangarei, the tourists look even worse than their Super Rugby namesakes.

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Nickers 24 minutes ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

I thought we made a lot of progress against that type of defence by the WC last year. Lots of direct running and punching holes rather than using width. Against that type of defence I think you have to be looking to kick on first phase when you have front foot ball which we did relatively successfully. We are playing a lot of rugby behind the gain line at the moment. They are looking for those little interchanges for soft shoulders and fast ball or off loads but it regularly turns into them battering away with slow ball and going backwards, then putting in a very rushed kick under huge pressure.


JB brought that dimension when he first moved into 12 a couple of years ago but he's definitely not been at his best this year. I don't know if it is because he is being asked to play a narrow role, or carrying a niggle or two, but he does not look confident to me. He had that clean break on the weekend and stood there like he was a prop who found himself in open space and didn't know what to do with the ball. He is still a good first phase ball carrier though, they use him a lot off the line out to set up fast clean ball, but I don't think anyone is particularly clear on what they are supposed to do at that point. He was used really successfully as a second playmaker last year but I don't think he's been at that role once this year. He is a triple threat player but playing a very 1 dimensional role at the moment. He and Reiko have been absolutely rock solid on defence which is why I don't think there will be too much experimentation or changes there.

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