Blues play long game with Sotutu bench gamble

Hoskins Sotutu has been arguably the form New Zealand rugby player of the first two rounds of Super Rugby Pacific, but rides the pine for the Blues’ visit to the Hurricanes tomorrow night as Vern Cotter plays the long game alongside the short one.

Cotter desperately wants to win this “tribal” clash between two of the three unbeaten Kiwi teams of the competition, and has provided a nod to the expected physical nature of the contest by naming a 6-2 reserves split.

But the first-year Blues coach is also conscious he’s got a larger objective in play, and it’s vital he shares the load through the round-robin to build competitiveness, options and form within his capable squad.

That’s why Sotutu, with five tries in two matches, and a pair of performances that have him on the inside track for the temporarily

vacated All Blacks No 8 jersey, this week finds himself on the bench, with skipper Dalton Papali’i, newly re-signed Anton Segner and the bruising Akira Ioane to fill the starting loose forward spots.

It’s also, to a slightly lesser extent, why powerhouse All Blacks prop Ofa Tu’ungafasi is handed a “conditioning”

week after his first game back from a knee injury. Again, Cotter has a longer-term goal in mind with a plan that clearly challenges the 31-year-old prop.

With Cotter losing his second firstchoice second-rower for an extended stint during last week’s 37-29 victory over the Highlanders – Sam Darry out for at least six* weeks with an MCL tear – the temptation might have been to keep his pack largely intact, with an eight-day turnaround up his sleeve.

But that’s not how Cotter operates. He likes to keep his players honest, motivated and on their toes.

“Hoskins has played five 80-minute games, with the pre-season,” explained the coach. “I’m aware, with the amount of work he’s doing, there is an element of fatigue. The idea was to put him on the bench so he could have the beginning of the week easy. He had Monday-Tuesday relatively light, and he’s picked it up today, He’ll be flying.

“They’ve got a strong bench, and our bench is important. Hoskins will give us another profile coming off, he can play a number of positions and it will be important going into those last 10 minutes.”

Cotter has rolled the dice. We will know tomorrow night whether it comes up a winner.