The dismal form of Auckland’s Super Rugby franchise puts union at risk of “losing” the city.
The dismal form of Auckland’s Super Rugby franchise puts union at risk of “losing” the city.
With each passing week it becomes harder to resist the conclusion that the Blues Super Rugby team have acquired a reverse Midas touch, whereby everything they touch turns to dross. They haven’t won at home this year. Last weekend, they gave Argentina’s Jaguares their firstever win over a New Zealand team. This weekend in Sydney, the Waratahs will surely fancy their chances of breaking the Australian teams’ 36-match losing streak against Kiwi opposition. And no sooner had Blues boss Michael Redman vowed to “reach out” to the resurgent Warriors than Auckland’s oval-ball standard-bearers were given a 40-point flogging by the Melbourne Storm.
It doesn’t inspire confidence that the Blues are looking to the rival code for inspiration: for the past six seasons the two clubs have been mirror images of mediocrity. (However, Warriors coach Stephen Kearney might enjoy patronising his Blues counterpart, Tana Umaga; when the pair faced each other in the 1991 Wellington under-19 league final, Umaga was sent off for elbowing Kearney in the face.)
The Warriors are travelling well – they were third on the NRL table at the time of writing – but it’s a bit early to celebrate their turnaround: only six points separate the top 10 teams, and the Warriors have the worst points differential in the top five. Still, they look like a different outfit in 2018 and are very much in the play-offs mix.
Not so the Blues, who are last in the New Zealand conference, with half as many points as the secondto-last Chiefs. They lie second-to-last overall, ahead of Japan’s game but outgunned Sunwolves, who haven’t won a game this year. (No prizes for naming the only local team the Sunwolves have beaten since entering the competition in 2016.)
The clubs’ contrasting fortunes have reignited talk that union is in danger of “losing” Auckland. The crowds at Mt Smart Stadium and the vast empty spaces at Eden Park suggest such talk isn’t unduly alarmist. All Blacks coach Steve Hansen says the Blues aren’t “an easy fix”, but how much longer can New Zealand Rugby (NZR) afford to leave it to the locals, an approach that borders on benign neglect, given what’s at stake in the fight for support, media attention, talent and sponsorship?
So what’s ailing the Blues? At the risk of over-simplification, the old adage that the best teams tend to have the best players isn’t a bad place to start. Any dispassionate pre-season assessment of the five Kiwi franchises’
New Zealand Rugby’s approach of leaving it to the locals borders on benign neglect.
playing rosters would have seeded the expectation that the Blues would finish last in the conference. Injuries to key players have compounded matters: the Blues fielded five All Blacks against the Jaguares, but four were fringe All Blacks with four tests between them and the fifth, Rieko Ioane, was playing out of position. Five other All Blacks, with 161 test caps between them, were unavailable.
Former All Blacks coach John
Hart, who in the 1980s turned Auckland into a powerhouse and more recently helped stabilise the Warriors in his capacity as the club’s executive director of football, wants NZR to put into the Blues “some energy … and some people that are going to make a difference”.
Hart also believes the Blues lack leadership: “If there’s one thing we’re starting to see in the Warriors, it’s leadership. There’s been quite an acquisition of good leadership and that’s sadly one of the areas that the Blues need.”
The contrast with the Chiefs, who’ve also had to cope with a horrendous injury toll, is striking. In Sam Cane, Brodie Retallick and Liam Messam, the Chiefs have storied senior players whose physical and mental toughness, pride in the jersey and personal standards are a galvanising example for younger, lesser players.
The Chiefs have their off days but they very rarely let games slip away because they can’t summon the will and bloody-mindedness to hang tough. Umaga isn’t blessed with such leaders, as he would know better than most: he was just such a talisman during his playing days at the Hurricanes.
FOOTNOTE: Well, that was quick. Concluding a two-part review of former world No 1 women’s golfer Lydia Ko’s recent struggles ( Sport, May 5), I cited the sporting aphorism that “form is temporary, class is permanent” and predicted she’d find a way back to the winner’s circle. She duly proceeded to win the Mediheal Championship in San Francisco, her first tournament victory in almost two years. And she did so in spectacular manner, rounding off a composed, precise display by rifling a 213m three-wood to within a metre of the cup and eagling the first play-off hole.