Blues eye bigger targets

Vern Cotter loves where his Blues are at early in this Super Rugby Pacific season. More importantly, the first-year head coach is even more excited about where they can get to if a promising, but flawed, first five games are anything to go by.

The Blues, on the surface, are travelling sweetly, with four victories and a single loss through the first five rounds, capped by Saturday night’s drought-breaking 26-6 spanking of the Crusaders.

They are fourth, on 17 points, just one shy of the Chiefs and Brumbies in equal second.

There was a lot to celebrate for the Blues on Saturday night as they secured their first home victory over the red-and-blacks in a decade. It was also a perfect way to mark the 100th game for returning skipper and lock Patrick Tuipulotu, who produced a powerhouse 80-minute effort.

But, much like the victory over the Waratahs in Sydney the week before, Saturday’s was a Blues effort tinged with lashings of mediocrity.

The Blues ran for 665m to just 198, and had 60% possession, 63% territory, and a 119-49 ruck advantage. But, apart from those two tries in just three minutes after halftime, while the visitors were down a man, they struggled to convert that pressure into points.

It’s why Cotter acknowledged the “monkey off the back” achieved by a result that was, really, never in doubt, but also warned against reading too much into it.

“We made it hard for ourselves in the first half,” he said. ”There were a lot of basic errors that kept them in the game, a lack of composure, and a little bit of stress around playing the Crusaders. Hopefully, we can put that behind us now.

“It was a good performance, but we’ll work on content. The big message I want to get across is everybody needs to keep their feet on the ground.’’