Blues lose quartet but still well set
The Blues will lose a key quartet from their championship-winning group, but are confident they have the depth and quality of replacements to sustain their position up near the top of the Super Rugby game.
Blues coach Leon MacDonald revealed after Saturday night’s drought-breaking Super Rugby Trans-Tasman grand final triumph over the Highlanders that not only were first five-eighth Otere Black, midfielder TJ Faiane and lock Gerard Cowley-Tuioti all heading to Japan, but openside flanker Blake Gibson was also off to another franchise.
But this is a new Blues group under the stewardship of chief executive Andrew Hore and the coaching of MacDonald. They future proof. They plan. They recruit. Beauden Barrett is back to run the show at No10 and, of course, Roger Tuivasa-Sheck is coming in to see if he can unleash some of that rugby league magic
on to the 15-man code.
MacDonald, who said he was ‘‘nearly there’’ with renegotiating his own contract, said he had only one or two spots left to fill in his squad for 2022.
From where the Blues were when MacDonald started in 2019,
he was able to reflect on some big shifts made over the last couple of years that played out in a pivotal contest like Saturday’s final.
‘‘We’re sitting in a box looking at lots of small gains ... some of the lines Otere took, some of our cleanout work, you see some of
Zarn [Sullivan]’s play, you think, ‘man, there has been so much growth in our group and we’re so proud of the way the guys have gone about their work’,’’ reflected the Blues coach after the franchise’s first title in 18 years.
‘‘One of the things we challenged each other has been to be demanding of the standards on the grass. We’ve got young Zarn putting heat on Rieko [Ioane] to be better. It’s lots of areas, small stuff that is the glue to a good performance and good team.
‘‘It’s stuff that has been part of the Crusaders and is starting to appear in our game.’’
MacDonald reflected after his team’s 23-15 triumph, where they came from 15-13 behind with a quarter of an hour to play, on the decision he had made three years back to cut ties with the Crusaders and head north to try to lead a turnaround at this franchise that had seemingly mastered the art of under-achievement.
‘‘This definitely makes it worthwhile,’’ he said. ‘‘This means a huge amount to me. To shift the family to Auckland, away from what we knew and to really put myself out there in an environment I’m not familiar with and the players weren’t familiar with me . . . in terms of risks for me, it was right up there.
‘‘I knew if I could get in there it would mean a lot. When I saw the boys’ faces out there on the grass, quite a few emotional guys who have been around this club for a long time who had seen lot of pain, and it just meant so much to them.
‘‘I don’t want to be disrespectful to the Crusaders but when I was with the Crusaders we expected to win a title, whereas here this is huge for us. You feel like it’s changing lives and achieving stuff that our players have only dreamed of in the past. That is more than enough motivation and reward for me.’’