Wynne Gray is fascinated to see how the Blues perform this year.
Conc entrate, watch my lips. The most important tournament right now in New Zealand is the Super Rugby series.
It’s the testing ground for so many of the rugby puzzles which will find resolutions as the year then works through an abbreviated All Blacks programme and onto the World Cup and into questions about who takes over as coach from Steve Hansen next year.
The World Cup will intrigue and concentrate our attention later this year but the foundations for that selection need to be coordinated and channelled through the next few months and the All Blacks panel will want multiple cover for every position as they survey the form charts.
Another hardcore production from the Crusaders will promote cries for Scott Robertson to be included somewhere on the next national coaching panel while all eyes will be on the Blues and their amended coaching roster.
Another muddled results chart will drive greater pleas for a wider overhaul of the team model but if results improve will that extend life at the franchise for Tana Umaga?
In these breathless times of the instant report, injuries will become an incessant theme about any players in the mix for the All Blacks while those players will come under massive scrutiny as soon as they are given the all-clear to resume their rugby.
The Blues are under the greatest heat. They muddled through their private ownership partnership and have been untidy on and off the field for multiple seasons with the latest coaching switcheroo between Leon MacDonald and Umaga another example of the messy arrangements.
There are more. Augustine Pulu has been relegated from the captaincy after a season and replaced by twin leaders in the pack, Patrick Tuipulotu and Blake Gibson who are entrusted with driving the performance charts and staying out of the injury clinics which have claimed too much of their time.
Loosehead prop Karl Tui’nukuafe is the bonus arrival after an extraordinary 2018 when he came from the spectator seats to a front-row job for the All Blacks.
It was a massive conversion and a huge tick for his tenacity and the work of the coaches who believed in his talent.
Now Tui’nukuafe has to do it again because that’s expected from an All Black but he’s got to do it with different teammates and a new set of coaches while there will be similarly high expectations about another rookie Dalton Papali’i who played a handful of games for the Blues last year and backed that up with enough presence in the national championship to earn an All Blacks call-up.
Optimism about the Blues gets a further boost when you throw in the talent and hard work from Rieko Ioane, Matt Duffie, Ofa Tu’ungafasi, Scott Scrafton, James Parsons, Melanie Nanai and Sione Mafileo.
That leaves a pool of uncertainty about other All Blacks and the pivotal first five-eighths role.
Most questions hover around two senior All Blacks - Sonny Bill Williams and Ma’a Nonu - who will be vying with TJ Faiane for work in midfield. Williams wasn’t sighted much last year because of numerous injuries and while he was taken on tour to Europe his form was patchy.
Job-share rosters with Nonu may be the key because injury-free and with his team specs sorted, Williams brings the power every side craves in midfield while his offloads create layers of attacking threats for his teammates.
Nonu has been signed for a third stint after previous average campaigns for the Blues and whether at nearly 37 he can cope with a high workload and bring enough impact after playing in Europe for the last few years is another unknown.
Something we do know is that Akira Ioane can be a damaging rugby player. The All Blacks coaches know that too but have been unable to coax enough fitness and discipline into the young looseforward to allow his full talents to flourish consistently.
They lost patience and left him out of the huge squad they took to Europe but a storming Super Rugby campaign would boost the Blues and Ioane’s chances of an international reprieve.
Then there’s the matter of who plays in the No 10 jersey and how much leeway he gets to call the game?
Is it Otere Black who was groomed for the job last year until he was hurt pre-season, Stephen Perofeta who took over with one temporary diversion to fullback or maybe Harry Plummer.
So many questions and all too few answers as uncertainty has been an expanding companion for the Blues since their last playoffs appearance back in 2011.