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Blues vs Western Force: Blues playoff bound, Force have a 90 per cent problem
By Ned Lester
The Blues faced what was essentially a must-win match at Eden Park on Friday night and rose to the challenge.
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The win furthers the reigning champs’ pursuit of a playoff berth, with a crucial bonus point helping bring them back into the picture in what is set to be an uber-competitive finish in the middle of the pack.
The 40-19 victory will no doubt cheer up Blues head coach ‘Stern Vern’ Cotter, who wasn’t mincing his words when questioning his men’s hunger this week.
Here are some takeaways from the Blues’ win.
Barrett is Razor’s man
Both Beauden Barrett and Damian McKenzie will be in the matchday 23 for the All Blacks this year, but it should be Barrett who starts in the No. 10 jersey.
Three try assists tonight, both via hand and boot, were the highlights, but the classy game management made up for some inaccuracies in the Blues’ execution.
The international veteran is ageing like fine wine, and his experience is invaluable in the first five role, something that was recognised by All Blacks head coach Scott Robertson last season, and should be again this year.
The combination of Barrett and Cam Roigard mixes livewire talent with traditional game management. Cortez Ratima and DMac off the bench provide a similar recipe, only inverted.
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Barrett is the safest pair of hands at the All Blacks’ disposal, is the most qualified for the top job and is in superb form. Let McKenzie cause havoc in the closing minutes, after Barrett has taken care of business thorughout the opening hour.
Force have a 90 per cent problem
No team concedes more tries as a direct result of missed tackles than the Western Force. They’re a team that plays as much defence as anyone, and only the Drua have missed more tackles.
Early in this one, the Force played with the ball in hand more than usual, but only tackled at 84 per cent. The backline in particular were dropping off tackles, accounting for nine of the 16 early misses.
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Carlo Tizzano can only do so much, and as far as one man wrecking balls go, the Wallaby is nothing but elite. But when not even a handful of your teammates are joining you in tackling over 90 per cent on the season, it makes winning a tall ask.
Each of the heavyweight sides have earned true contender status by having players across the park who nail their defensive assignments. The Force don’t have that, so their ceiling appears limited.
The team have also only won one game away from home this season, guilty of conceding more points when visiting than hosting.
Blues playoff bound
An overreaction to one win? Well, here’s the case for a late Blues resurgence on the competition ladder.
A deep dive into the remaining season schedule this week revealed the Blues as the team with, relatively speaking, the easiest run home over the final five rounds – this match included.
The Force were the highest-seeded team remaining on the Blues’ schedule, with three of the teams remaining also being the few sides between the reigning champions and a playoff berth.
That means the teams’ fate is very much in their own hands, as consecutive wins will both lift their chances and sink their opponents.
The only time the Blues will leave Auckland in the next five weeks is to face the last-placed Fijian Drua, a tough fixture no doubt, but a winable one.
As far as 21-point wins go, this performance didn’t inspire the utmost confidence, but a win’s a win, and scoring 40 points is a welcome improvement for a team who have struggled to execute this season. It is comfortably the highest points total scored by the Blues all season.
With the table as tight as it is, we can expect it to come down to the final round, when the Blues host a Waratahs team who are yet to win outside of Sydney.
The bonus point win places the Aucklanders, albeit likely to be temporarily, in the top six.
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Gee, not a lot of love there for a team that nailed 40 points against a much-rejuvenated Force!
Yeah not a bad performance I reckon.
To give an example, Sotutu should the sort of desperation, at the end racing up and sliding to cut Force’s last attack off, that had been missing in too many games imo.
The Blues don’t look hungry at all.
It’s like they won a title and thought cool, achievement made, and they are happy to coast on that one thing instead of getting fired up for the next challenges. Sad.
Yeah Patrick confused me at the end there.
Thought the Blues were still pretty ordinary, just that the Force were worse. The Blues have some big challenges to overcome if they are to get near the final:
- Their lineout is a hot mess. Can barely win their own throw at the moment.
- Their 2/3rd string wingers are often badly out of position on D.
- Need to improve their kick chase and kick D. A team with a good kicking game will take them apart.
- They seem able to concentrate and focus for only minutes at a time, before they drop off (and consequently concede points)
- Their backline attack positioning is odd - they seem stuck between being very flat and running patterns from depth, and thus do neither very well
- Their decision making at times is non-existent. The end to the game was comical and it was only luck that enabled them to keep their bonus point. And they often kick the ball away on attack when they should keep it in hand and vice versa - not sure who is running their attack (both coaching and in-game) but it seems very uncoordinated and every-man-for-himself
- Their breakdown work runs very hot and cold. Sometimes great, other times they just forget about it.
As for Barrett - he was the best back by far, and the Blues need his control. Without him they fall apart even more. But not sure that I agree with the author about him starting for the ABs - an equal argument can be made for him to come off the bench and control the finish (a little like the Crusaders & how they use JOC)
Only as ordinary as most of their competition above them though. Better than normal.
Force brought their game, minus a little dome Donaldson maybe, not quite their but it was a pretty good contest. I think you’re just blind to it due to preconceptions.
BB has rediscovered his tactical kicking game, which DMac has never had. He also gets better as the match progresses, whereas DMac gets ragged. Those two aspects will keep him as the AB starter and DMac as a “super sub” where he can cover #10 or fullback, although inferior to both BB and WJ in that role. great placekicker though, but that on its own won’t give him a start.