Blues wing Mark Tele’a excited about playing ‘hungry’ Crusaders

All Blacks and Blues wing Mark Tele’a is looking forward to taking on a “hungry” Crusaders outfit at Eden Park this weekend, with the defending champions desperate to snap their winless run.

Tele’a, who is World Rugby’s reigning Breakthrough Player of the Year, has started the season with some strong form as the wing leads the Blues in carries, metres, defenders beaten, offloads and line breaks.

As for the Blues as a collective, the Aucklanders have opened the Super Rugby Pacific season with three wins from four starts but they’re still yet to quite hit their stride.

The Blues will be eager to make it two wins on the bounce this weekend, though, when come up against traditional rivals the Crusaders in a blockbuster New Zealand derby.

Reigning champions the Crusaders may have the rugby world talking after their winless start to the season, but Tele’a and the Blues aren’t taking their opponents lightly.

“It’s the Crusaders bro, you can never look down on the Crusaders,” Tele’a said, as reported by Stuff. “Their legacy and history shows how good they are.

“We’ve got massive respect for them and their record against us is amazing.

“We’re up for the challenge and I know they’ll be up for it too. Even though they’re 0-4, they can come to town, knock us off and get their season going.

“They’re hungry and as a team we’ve got to step it up and be as hungry as they are.”

The Blues started their season with promising wins over the Fijian Drua and Highlanders before going down to the still-undefeated Hurricanes at Wellington’s Sky Stadium.

While the Blues were able to return to winning ways with a hard-fought 12-10 win over the Waratahs in Sydney last weekend, it was far from their best performance.

Ofa Tu’ungafasi scored the visitor’s first try of the night with a score just before the half-time break, and a second-half scrap followed with Stephen Perofeta missing multiple shots at goal.

After making it a two-point game late in the piece, the Waratahs were in with a chance as the clock ticked beyond the 78-minute mark. But the Blues managed to hold on for an unconvincing 12-10 win.

“We’re doing good,” Tele’a added. “There’s still a lot of errors we can improve on, but I feel like we’re in a good spot.

“You can’t just go out and gel from the start. You need those connections and the only way to build them is by playing and training. The more we do that, the better we’ll get.”