Blues don’t need ‘extra pressure’

As if the brittle Blues don’t have enough on their plate, they may well end up carrying the hopes of their nation on Saturday night at Brookvale Oval when they visit the Aussie conference-topping Waratahs.

As you read this, the winning streak by New Zealand teams over Aussie sides in Super Rugby sits at 36, stretching back to the tail end of the 2016 season. It includes a perfect 26-0 record in 2017.

That mark should comfortably extend to 37 on Friday night in Melbourne when the erratic Rebels host the ultra-consistent Crusaders who are riding a fivematch win streak and are expecting Richie Mo’unga and Jack Goodhue back to boost their stocks.

But there is the very real prospect of it ending on Saturday night on Super Rugby’s historic visit to the Northern Beaches when the Waratahs seek to join a long queue of teams inflicting misery on the Blues in 2018.

But the Blues were not exactly embracing the Kiwi win streak over their trans-Tasman rivals as a motivator when they stepped up preparations at their Alexandra Park headquarters on Tuesday.

Senior players Augustine Pulu and Patrick Tuipulotu agreed it was probably a factor they could do without in the wake of their disappointing home defeat to the Jaguares on Saturday night that saw coach Tana Umaga criticise his players for their failure to adhere to the game-plan.

In short, the Blues skipper and their lineout linchpin both reckon an external pressure, like having to carry the burden of a trans-Tasman win streak, is a needless distraction as they look to address their own laundry-list of issues and prise their faltering season off the slippery slide to oblivion.

The Blues have lost seven of their nine matches in 2018, five of their last six, and have yet to win at home this season. They also have an injury list hovering dangerously close to 20, including a hefty wedge of their most experienced and accomplished talent.

‘‘We’re playing for more than pride,’’ said Pulu who will reassume the captaincy this week after logging 30 minutes off the bench against the Jaguares.

‘‘Don’t count us out yet. It doesn’t look good on the scorecard, but we’ve got seven games still, and who knows how that goes. Our main focus is going out there and putting in a performance we can be proud of.’’

Yes, Pulu has heard about the trans-Tasman win streak. But he doesn’t want to know about it this week.

‘‘If we let too much stuff from the outside in, that’s how we’ll break down.

‘‘The reason we’re still strong is it’s just the inner-circle, we’re talking to each other, and not letting anything else affect us.’’

Tuipulotu, back from a virus that laid him low for a week, agreed such a negative mindset could be self-destructive and had no relevance to the task at hand.

‘‘We don’t want to think about that too much,’’ he told Stuff. ‘‘We know the Waratahs can play, they’ve been more dynamic lately and their forward pack can get around and do that grunt work really well. ’’

Pulu, though, first put to bed the fuss over the Blues’ poor second half against the Jaguares when Umaga bemoaned their failure to abide by instructions and use the elements at their back to play a territory game.

‘‘We didn’t execute the gameplan as well as we should have ... we didn’t kick enough. Those tactics once again let us down.

‘‘We’ve got young drivers out there, and it’s making sure we learn from that. We, as players, take full responsibility for the weekend. We didn’t drive the boys around too good to close the game out.’’