Blues motivated to end their season on a high in Japan

Patrick McKendry

In naming a virtually full-strength Blues team to play the Sunwolves in Tokyo tomorrow, Tana Umaga has made a statement that nothing but a good performance will be acceptable in his team’s final match of the season.

There have been no cheap caps handed out for the match at the Prince Chichibu Memorial Stadium that means little for either team. Of his senior players, only Jerome Kaino isn’t starting, and Umaga has named the loose forward who started all three tests against the Lions on the bench.

Lock Patrick Tuipulotu (ankle) and first-five Piers Francis (foot) have been sent home due to injury, a disappointing way for their seasons to end, with Tuipulotu not included in the squad to play the Lions after being late to training, and Francis heading back to England to play for Northampton.

Predictably, there are starts in their final matches at the franchise for prop Charlie Faumuina and No 8 Steven Luatua. The Blues should be motivated to give their two stalwarts an appropriate send-off.

“It was a good hit-out [in a warmup game against Honda] last week to get the guys acclimatised to the heat and to see who was motivated. There were some guys who showed a lot of energy and that’s what we want.”

The Blues will likely finish ninth, their highest placing since 2011 when they were beaten in the semifinals by eventual champions the Reds. They will probably end with more competition points than the Brumbies, who are guaranteed a home quarter-final, but Umaga has long reconciled himself to the competition’s quirks.

“The way I look at it, you’ve got to be the fourth New Zealand team to have any chance of making the quarterfinals. That’s all I measure ourselves on at this stage and we didn’t do that.”