Hoskins Sotutu's take on the Blues' streak-ending season: 'We've been working really hard to try and get Auckland back supporting us'
Already, 2020 is shaping up as a record-breaking year for the Blues.
Sunday night’s win over the Hurricanes marked the first time that the Auckland-based side have won back-to-back matches against the men from the capital since 2013 – which was also the most-recent season that the Blues had recorded a win in Wellington until earlier this year.
They’re now sitting on a five-match winning streak – a feat they’ve not achieved since 2011.
Curiously enough, 2011 was also the last time that the Blues managed a win in Hamilton – although that could all change when the neighbouring franchises face off this coming weekend.
On that fateful night nine year ago, Jared Payne was the sole try-scorer for the visitors while Luke McAlister added 11 points from the boot. The Chiefs scored two tries of their own, through Liam Messam and Sona Taumalolo, but still fell short, 13-16.
None of the players that took the field on that soggy Hamilton evening are still playing professional football in New Zealand but Tana Umaga, who started the game in the Chiefs midfield, is now an assistant coach with the Blues.
That means that none of the current crop of Blues talent have ever tasted victory against the Chiefs in Hamilton. Beauden Barrett, of course, only just joined the Blues this season – but as the Hurricanes also hadn’t scored a win in Hamilton for over a decade until earlier this year, Barrett’s similarly never won a Super Rugby match in the Waikato region.
That’s unlikely to faze anyone in the Blues set-up, however – least of all, breakout star Hoskins Sotutu.
“Is that so? I didn’t even know that,” Sotutu said when asked about the Blues’ less than impressive record in Hamilton.
“We just try not to think about the past too much – we just focus on the game at hand. We’re a new team at the moment, trying to turn things around.”
Sotutu was just one part of an impressive loose forward combo that outgunned their Hurricanes counterparts over the weekend.
While Northland’s Tom Robinson was expertly employed in the lineouts and replacement openside Dalton Papalii hit the most breakdowns of any Blues forward, Sotutu was a menace across the park – eating metres, pilfering lineout ball and earning breakdown turnovers.
The breakdown, in particular, is one area where Sotutu is focussing on improving his performance.
From the confines of isolation, Hoskins Sotutu and I spoke about his impressive season with the @BluesRugbyTeam. #SuperRugbyhttps://t.co/pWOhi1kKJm
— Tom Vinicombe (@TomVinicombe) March 26, 2020
“I’ve been working on my jackle and stuff around the breakdown a lot,” he said. “The coaches have tried to help me out a lot around that. That’s sort of the area that I need to work on the most.
“Also, I’m working on trying to turn my defence into a bit of a turning point as well. Trying to be that enforcer dude as well – at both ends of the ball.”
Sotutu was just one piece of a Blues lineout that caused massive problems for the Hurricanes, with the Aucklanders picking off five of their opposition’s throws – and they’ll be trying to cause as much disruption when they come up against the Chiefs on Saturday.
The Chiefs had plenty of their own issues over the weekend, with precious lineout ball regularly spilled or overthrown, and the tall timber in the Blues pack will be hoping to feed of those sorts of mistakes – though they may have to do it without Robinson, who sustained a knee injury in the win over the Hurricanes.
Blake Gibson, who started in the 7 jersey, took a blow to the head and exited Sunday’s game after 30 minutes, which could also force changes for the Blues.
Injuries are hardly a surprise – players, coaches and pundits alike all predicted that there would be plenty of casualties throughout the season due to the intensely physical nature of the NZ derbies. While Sotutu is fit and ready to go for the weekend at this stage, he felt the impact of his first competitive game of rugby since the lockdown back in March.
“The body was a bit sore but it was the first game back so that was expected,” he said.
“You can’t really train for an intense game like that, especially against the Canes, it’s always real fast and also real physical as well. You feel pretty tired in the first half and then it carries on all the way through until the end of the game.”
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The Blues aren’t expecting a rousing welcome from the Chiefs or the Hamilton crowd but Sotutu is hopeful that fans do continue to flock to stadiums for the Super Rugby Aotearoa competition.
“There’s a bit of a rivalry, always, against the Chiefs,” Sotutu admitted. “I guess they don’t like us and we don’t like them either.”
“It’s always good to have heaps of fans at the games. It just helps with the atmosphere. It pumps up both team – it helps when you’re the home team but when you’re visiting, it gets the boys up as well.”
Over 43,000 fans turned out at Eden Park to witness the Blues’ win over the Hurricanes while, by Tuesday evening, 16,000 tickets had been sold for this weekend’s grudge match with the Chiefs at Waikato Stadium, which can seat around 25,000 spectators.
Sotutua admitted that running out for the first game of rugby in over three months was a little bit nerve-wracking – but hoped that the masses of fans that turned out for the match will be a sign of things to come.
“It was definitely the biggest crowd I’ve played in front of,” Sotutu said of Sunday’s game.
“There’s always a bit of nerves but, for the most part, I was pretty excited to get out and play in front of so many Blues supporters. We’ve been working really hard to try and get Auckland back supporting us and having some more faith in us. I think we’re heading in the right direction.
“I just hope that they keep coming out and we keep making them happy.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Sometimes people just like a moan mate!
1 Go to commentsexcellent idea ! rugby needs this 💪
9 Go to comments9 Brumbies! What a joke! The best performing team in Oz! Ditch Skelton for Swain or Neville. Ryan Lonergan ahead of McDermott any day! Best selection bolter is Toole … amazing player
12 Go to commentsI like this, but ultimately rugby already has enough trophies. Trying to make more games “consequential" might prove to be a fools errand, although this is a less bad idea than some others. Minor quibble with the title of the article; it isn’t very meaningful to say the boks are the unofficial world champions when it would be functionally impossible for the Raeburn trophy not to be held by the world champions. There’s a period of a few months every 4 years when there is no “unofficial” world champion, and the Raeburn trophy is held by the actual world champions.
9 Go to commentsIts a great idea but one that I dont think will have a lot of traction. It will depend on the prestige that they each hold but if you can do that it would be great. When Japan beat the Boks (my team) I was absolutely devestated but I wont deny the great game they played that day. We were outclassed and it was one of the best games of rugby I have seen. Using an idea like this you might just give the the underdog teams more of an opportunity to beat the big teams and I can absolutely see it being a brilliant display of rugby. They beat us because they planned for that game. It was a great moment for Japan. This way we can remove the 4 year wait and give teams something to aim for outside of World Cup years.
9 Go to commentsHi, Dave here. Happy to answer questions 🥰
9 Go to commentsDon’t think that headline is accurate. It’s great to see Aus doing better but I’m not sure they’ve shown much threat to the top of the table. They shouldn’t be inflating wins against the lousy Highlanders and Crusaders either.
3 Go to commentsSuch a shame Roigard and Aumua picked up long term injuries, probably the two form players in the comp. Also, pretty sure Clarke Dermody isn’t their coach. Got it half right though.
3 Go to commentsOh the Aussie media, they never learn. At least Andrew Kellaway is like “Woah, yeah it’s great, but settle down there guys” having endured years of the Aussie media, fans, and often their players getting ahead of themselves only to fall flat on their faces. Have the “We'll win the Bledisloe for sure this year!” headlines started yet? It’s simple to see what’s going on. The Aussie teams are settled, they didn't lose any of their major players overseas. The Crusaders and Chiefs lost key experienced All Blacks, and Razor in the Crusaders case, and clearly neither are anywhere near as strong as last year (The Canes and Blues would probably be 3rd & 4th if they were). The Highlanders are annually average, even more so post-Aaron Smith and a big squad clean out. The two teams at the top? The two nz sides with largely the same settled roster as last year, except Ardie Savea for the Canes. They’ve both got far better coaches now too. If the Aussies are going to win the title, this is the year the kiwi sides will be weakest, so they better take their chance.
3 Go to commentsThe World Cup has to be the gold standard, line in the sand. 113 teams compete for what is the opportunity to make the pool stages, and then the knockout games for the trophy. The concept is sound. This must have been the rationale when the World Cup was created, surely? But I’m all for Looking forward and finding new ways for the SH to dominate the NH into the future. The autumn series needs a change up. Let’s start by having the NH teams come south every odd year for the Autumn/Spring series games?
9 Go to commentsWhat’ll happen when the AI models of the future go back in time and try to destroy the AI models of the past standing in their way of certain victory?
41 Go to commentsThanks, Nick. We (Seanny Maloney, Brett and I) just discussed Charlie as a potential Wallaby No 8, and wondered if he has truly realised how big he is in contact (and whether he can add 5 kg w/o slowing down). Your scouting report confirms our suspicions he has the materiel. No one knows if he has the mentality (as Johann van Graan said this week about CJ, Duane and Alfie B) to carry 10-15 times a game.
57 Go to commentsHe would be a great player for the Stormers, Dobbo should approach the guy.
3 Go to commentsGood article. A few years back when he was playing for the Cheetahs, he was a quiet standout for exactly the seasons stated here. I occasionally get to see his games in the UK, and he has become a more complete player and in many ways like an Irish player. His work ethic is so suitable to the Leinster game. I wonder if Rassie would have him listed somewhere.
3 Go to commentsResults probably skewed by the fact that a few clubs have foreign fly halves in their 30s, but most teams have young English scrum halves. Results also likely to be skewed by the fact that many teams rely on centres and fullbacks to provide depth at 10, whereas they will need to stock a large number of specialist backup 9s.
1 Go to commentsI really get the sense that when all is said and done, the path of least resistance will end up being a merger of Wasps & Worcester that essentially kills the Worcester Warriors brand and sees Wasps permanently playing at Sixways. I’m not saying that’s what should happen or what I want to happen. I just think it’s the easiest rout to take and therefore, will be what happens. Wasps will definitely return to play first, and I suppose it all depends on if they can find support at Sixways. If people turn up and support Wasps in that community, at that ground, I bet they drop the Sevenoaks plan and just remain at Sixways. Under the radar but not totally unrelated, it looks as though London Irish are going to be brought back from the dead by a German consortium and look set to return, likely to the remade Championship. It’s set to have 12 clubs next season with 14 in 2025/26, what do you want to bet those extra 2 are Wasps and London Irish?
3 Go to commentsThe shoulder is a “joint” with multiple bones. You don’t “fracture” a shoulder, you fracture any one or more of the bones that make up a shoulder.
2 Go to commentsOh dear, bones too suspect to continue?
2 Go to commentsBold headline considering the Canes and Blues are 1 and 2 and the Brumbies were soundly beaten by the Chiefs and Blues. Biggest surprise is Rebels 4 Crusaders 12 - no one saw that coming. If Aus are improving that’s great 👍
3 Go to commentsAnna, You are right, we need to have patience whilst the others catch up to England and France. Also it is the PWR that has been the game changer for England. the RFU put money into that initially at the expense of the Red Roses. I was sceptical at first but it has paid off in spades.
1 Go to comments