Pressure Gauge

Leon MacDonald has brought a structure and organisation to the Blues that the organisation has been missing for a long time.

His side clearly made progress last year. His men are playing for each other and, just as importantly, developing; Sototu and Clarke enjoyed successful test debuts last year, with outside back Telea a standout in his first year at this level.

MacDonald has struck up a good relationship with assistants Coventry, Umaga and Halangahu and all of his coaches have extended their contracts to stay at the Blues.

With a relatively new chief executive in the form of Andrew Hore at the helm, the Blues board are unlikely to want to make changes no matter what the results are this year.