Beauden Barrett set for mid-April return as Blues prepare to break play-off drought
The Blues are optimistic.
It is December, after all, and not a shot has been fired in Super Rugby. We say this every year with New Zealand’s most underperforming franchise.
But there is an air of confidence that they will gradually build on the inexorable progress made in 2019 when they proved far harder to beat, despite their final unimposing 5-1-10 record, and should have won 5-6 more games than they did.
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They had an open training session at their Auckland base today, turned back the clock with some 5-a-side games involving old legends such as Doug Howlett and Daniel Braid, announced plans for a pitchside bar at their competition opener at Eden Park, and went old school with the choice of Onewa Domain as the venue for their January 24 pre-season clash with the Hurricanes.
Oh yes, and coach Leon MacDonald is looking at a mid-April return to action for their star signing Beauden Barrett, who is on extended sabbatical. The All Blacks fullback cum first five has been jet-setting around the globe, playing golf, and buying a new property in the city of sails. He has also fitted in the odd gym session at Blues HQ, as has fellow All Black Ofa Tuungafasi. Barrett will, however, likely ease back into footy with his Taranaki club Coastal.
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While the Hurricanes and the Crusaders have had distractions around the make-up of their coaching staff as the All Blacks coaching saga played out, the Blues have been able to move serenely on with their work. That suits second-year head coach MacDonald.
“We’ve been really impressed with the state everyone turned up after a month off. That set them up, so we’ve had a really good (three-week) pre-season and we’ve come together well,” he says.
That led into today’s first concerted contact session, which is vital given that the Super Rugby kickoff against the Chiefs is on January 31, the earliest in the competition’s 25-year history.
“We’ve been talking about that since day one. We need to be game-fit by the end of January. The days of thinking about contact after New Year’s are long gone,” MacDonald says.
There is a decent look to the roster. Rieko Ioane, who suddenly has plenty to prove, will be given a crack at centre. He turned up walking his dog today. Like the other All Blacks, other than Barrett, he is due back to full training in January.
And yet while the Blues will need to get through the first 10 weeks or so with their halves before Barrett slots in, there is a useful, yet unheralded, aspect to their recruitment.
They have signed several older, more seasoned pros who will do the job on the field and help lift standards off it. That in itself will not guarantee a run to the playoffs, but it will galvanise the group and add to the intra-squad competition. So step forward loose forward Tony Lamborn, once of the Hurricanes via the USA Eagles, hooker Kurt Eklund, who played for the Blues in their winning 2018 10s side, bruising former Highlanders hooker Ray Niuia and Northland wing Jordan Hyland, who is back in the fold.
No captain has yet been announced but it would surprise if it wasn’t All Blacks lock Patrick Tuipulotu, who was co-skipper in 2019.
Munster medic sparks sideline brawl:
Comments on RugbyPass
Who's Jarrad Hohepa?
1 Go to commentsSo let me get this straight. Say you have the dominant scrum. You are 99% sure you can go for a scrum pushover try on the line to win the game. The opposition knows it too. They give away a silly tap kick instead. You are now not allowed to scrum. This is ridiculous! *%@ing the game up as usual! The fact that the attacking teams are not allowed to scrum from a held up over the line is just as ridiculous. Really world rugby? Careful people might start a rebel league called True Rugby or Real Rugby.
72 Go to comments12 subs during a game? How has that been allowed to happen NB? I hate when the game goes in this monopolistic direction closing up shop, it just becomes non sport. Btw have you seen anything of how Liam Coltman was tracking for Lyon? He has just signed to return to Otago though we have a couple of young hookers developing here. He was a popular gentle natured character down here and I’m glad to see him back but maybe he will be a mentor primarily?
4 Go to commentsGreat breakdown and the global politics always confuses me a little. The southern hemisphere seems to be left out a bit but I wouldn’t even know where to start with fixing it. Club challenge could be a step in the right direction
4 Go to commentsSince he coached Free state, from that time onwards, I maintained he was the coach for the Boks. A nice, no nonsense guy with an excellent brain, who gets results.
11 Go to commentswell - they only played against 14 men and had the TMO team on their side - and still should have lost… so actually that makes sense.
32 Go to commentsSouthern hemisphere Rugby is exactly that, boring. Northern Hemisphere Rugby is soooo much more entertaining and better with better players.
2 Go to commentsIf he was to be cited for a dangerous behavior, then it’s natural that he should be. Then NTamack too, yes? And I’ll add a good whataboutism - Yeandle eye-gouging on Richie Arnold: not cited. Eye-gouging. Not high tackle. Eye-gouging. It was on French TV, with French TV directors.
5 Go to commentsReally poorly written rambling piece ..
4 Go to commentsIt was so boring
2 Go to commentspersonally I’d go with : 1. France 2. NZ 3. England 4. Ireland 5. Scotland
32 Go to commentsAndy everything becomes easier with experience therefor counting etc straight after a match becomes easier when you have 100+ caps vs 17 which is the experience you speak from.
160 Go to commentsGetting rid of the Dupont Law is a good thing and ought to have been done months ago! Officially getting rid of the croc roll is a good thing. The law about no scrums from a short arm is well intended in terms of speeding the game up but it’s an overreaction to a clever yet calculated gamble that could have blow up in South Africa’s face if they conceded a penalty from the scrum that was set after Willemse took claimed the mark in the World Cup QF.
72 Go to commentsRassie The GOAT
11 Go to commentsOf their 5 big matches in RWC Scotland and NZ were the easiest. They took a 12-3 lead against NZ and after the red decided it was best to hold the lead and take chances that came. None came and it was tight but they dug a lot deeper in the other two knock out matches. They had trounced NZ in Twickenham in a fixture that NZ must now regret. Psychology was clearly with SA in the final as a result.
32 Go to commentsMy favourite line/exchanges from Chasing the Sun 2. News headline: “SA. The last hurdle in ABs World Cup glory”. Something like that. “You’re all just a hurdle. A hop, skip and a jump”. Coming from Rassie and Jacque. Basically - nobody thinks you’re going to win. You’re just a pushover team. Nobody respects you. When the camera shows the players faces, you can see the effect. You can see the rev meters (die moer metertjies) firing up. Mitchell said he felt it prior to the 19 final. He said to Eddie watching the teams warming up that it was going to be a tough day at the office. Wave a red flag in front of South African, and you can expect a reaction. This is not unique - many teams rev themselves. And Bok teams in particular. With horrific consequences (discipline, poor thinking under pressure) because that’s the drawback to using emotion right? But what this Bok team does better than many since 2007 is channel the emotion and stay on task. Despite the emotion. Why, because while Rassie might play mind games - he talks about creating a safe environment. Listen to his recent honorary doctorate acceptance speech. While he uses psychology he creates psychological safety. He’s a damn fine coach. Can’t wait for Pretoria. It’s going to be a hummer.
11 Go to commentsWhat Rassie does for SA is big. It has helped people to unite and see we can win with the right people in place.
11 Go to commentsTerrible conditions for young players to express themselves just enjoy it guys. As a saffa great to see Ausie youth looking good. Wow SA have some great talent also.
2 Go to commentsYes, another example of French tv directors ensuring that incidents like this are swiftly glossed over for the benefit of their teams…
5 Go to commentsThe prospect of the club match ups across hemispheres is surely appetising for everyone. The reality however, may prove to be slightly different. There are currently two significant driving forces that have delivered to same teams consistently to the latter champions cup stages for years now. The first of those is the yawning gap in finances, albeit delivered by different routes. In France it’s wealthy private owners operating with a higher salary cap by some distance compared to England. In Ireland it’s led by a combination of state tax relief support, private Leinster academy funding and IRFU control - the provincial budgets are not equal! This picture is not going to change anytime soon. The second factor is the EPCR competition rules. You don’t need a PhD. in advanced statistical analysis from oxbridge to see the massive advantage bestowed upon the home team through every ko round of the tournament. The SA teams will gain the opportunity for home ko ties in due course but that could actually polarise the issue even further, just look at their difficulties playing these ties in Europe and then reverse them for the opposition travelling to SA. Other than that, the picture here is unlikely to change either, with heavyweight vested interests controlling the agenda. So what does all this point to for the club world championship? Well the financial differential between the nh and sh teams is pretty clear. And the travel issues and sporting challenge for away teams are significantly exacerbated beyond those already seen in the EPCR tournaments. So while the prospect of those match ups may whet our rugby appetites, I’m very much still to be convinced the reality will live up to expectations…
4 Go to comments