Blues injury update delivers mixed news on All Black veterans

The Blues will be without two of their most experienced leaders when the 2026 Super Rugby Pacific season kicks off two weeks from now, but it’s not all bad news steaming from the City of Sails.

The 2024 Super Rugby Pacific champions will be farewelling the head coach who led them over the mountain previously unscaled since 2003, with Vern Cotter confirming a move to the Reds in 2027, but they will also be welcoming back a handful of familiar faces.

All Blacks Stephen Perofeta, Sam Darry and Ofa Tu’ungafasi are all back on deck for the 2026 campaign after Perofeta was missing for large stretches of 2025 and Darry and Tu’ungafasi missed the Super season entirely.

The returns were inspiring plenty of joy for Cotter, who said, “There’s a real energy” to the group with several senior leaders restored.

However, the same can not be said for Beauden Barrett and Patrick Tuipulotu, who are both expected to miss the start of the upcoming season.

“Beauden will be a little bit later coming in; he’s spent a fair bit of time on the field with a lot of responsibility in the last couple of years. So, he’ll come in and give us a boost,” Cotter explained on Tuesday afternoon.

“Obviously, we would have loved to have Patty (Tuipulotu) from the start, but he’s such a great leader around the group, doing what he does without playing. So when he comes back in, that’ll give us another push later in the season.”

Asked for a more specific return timeline for 34-year-old Barrett, Cotter said the playmaker is on “regen” mode.

“He’ll probably miss the first two or three rounds and then come back in. He’s been training with the team on light duties and has been slowly coming back over the past week. I think you’ll see him more and more involved as we hit the competition.

“I think it’ll be against the Crusaders at home in round four when we’ll have him back on deck for us.”

Meanwhile, Tuipulotu is expected to sit out a little longer, even if his track record is littered with early recoveries.

“You know what Patrick’s like, he shouldn’t have played the final two years ago. You can see him pacing around the place and around the coffee machine. He probably needs to get a bit better at making coffee than he has done.

“He’s really good to have around, and I think doctors are saying round six. Knowing Patty, he’ll try and start the competition in two weeks’ time, but I don’t know that that’s going to be the best decision for him, so we’ll just be patiently waiting for him.”

A serious neck injury has seen Tu’ungafasi sidelined since last March, and Cotter was pleased to share the good news that he’s likely to be available for round one of the coming season.

“He’s an older body and working his way towards game fitness. A player like that, he knows what he needs. We are picking that he’ll be ready to go for the first game.

“He can play both sides of the scrum, and he’s challenged himself to shift over to tighthead and give us what we need there as well. Having a player with his mana around the team is really important.”