Northern Edition
Select Edition
Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

'Took that loss personally': Star Blues loose forward on playoff motivation

Hoskins Sotutu of the Blues looks on during an Auckland Blues Super Rugby training session at Blues HQ on June 06, 2024 in Auckland, New Zealand. (Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)

Things haven’t exactly gone to plan this season for the reigning champions of Super Rugby Pacific, but they have scraped into the playoffs, finishing in sixth place after smashing the NSW Waratahs, 46-6, at Eden Park on Saturday afternoon.

ADVERTISEMENT

Vern Cotter and the Blues have struggled to close out games this season, falling agonisingly short in multiple games this season, probably most notably against the Chiefs in round five where a late Xavi Taele sideline conversion hit the left post, giving the Chiefs a 32-31 victory.

This time around, the Blues will take some confidence into the qualifying final on Saturday night in Hamilton, after starting to get some backline momentum going against the NSW Waratahs.

Related

Star Blues loose forward Hoskins Sotutu believes that the team used the loss to Moana Pasifika as motivation to get better over the bye period before the Waratahs game.

“Yeah, it was real disappointing for us, and a lot of us took that loss personally,” Sotutu told media post-match at Eden Park.

“So when you go into the bye it was a bit of a long wait to be able to make it right again. But being able to sort of focus on this week and put out that that performance was very good for the boys.”

Sotutu admits it was difficult to put the emotion behind them in the lead-up to the game, but believes they got the balance right in the end.

ADVERTISEMENT

“It’s sort of a bit hard not to get over emotional, I guess, with them leaving and then possibly this being the last game of the season sort of thing if we don’t front up.

“So being able to control our emotion and the way that we’re able to be accurate on the field through our set piece through our carry and clean and I think we got the balance right tonight.”

Cotter told media post-match at Eden Park in Auckland that the victory on Saturday was built on a week of emotion with some players playing their last game at Eden Park.

“It was a really nice week, it was a good week because there was a little bit of emotion around the players, there was a theme around enjoying ourselves,” Cotter said.

ADVERTISEMENT

“Making sure we went out and enjoyed ourselves in front of the crowd and enjoying yourself means you’ll give a bit more for your teammate.”

Fixture
Super Rugby Pacific
Chiefs
19 - 20
Full-time
Blues
All Stats and Data

Cotter enjoyed seeing his backline grow some confidence, especially after a disappointing defeat to cross-town rivals Moana Pasifika in round fourteen.

“We tried to work on that cohesion that we were lacking a little bit against Moana, so I think we saw that in the first half, and I think the team grew in confidence.

“I think our defence picked up and came a little bit harder off the line, and started hitting a bit harder, and turnovers from that.

“I thought the kick game variety in our kick game and moving the ball, it was just nice to see the group of men come together and practice for the last time and all play for each other.”

When asked about whether Cotter made a change to the Blues game plan against the Waratahs, where his team seemed to play with more freedom in the backline, Cotter explained that he wanted his team to keep varying their play.

“You just got to keep varying what we’re doing and it was a good week. So there were the short side attacks, it was moving the ball and I thought the kicking game was pretty good.”

Download the RugbyPass app now!

News, stats, live rugby and more! Download the new RugbyPass app on the App Store (iOS) and Google Play (Android) now!

ADVERTISEMENT
LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

8 Comments
C
CO 13 days ago

The Chiefs on form should obliterate the Blues by thirty points at home. Blues are easy to write off after putting out so many mud performances this season. Zero expectation that the Blues will turn up with the Chiefs winning the game in a canter.

C
Cantab 14 days ago

Much better effort from the Blues but can they replicate against the impressive Chiefs ?? If so they could be a chance.

T
Toaster 14 days ago

Yeah one wouldn’t think so

As a Blues fan (but a general fan of all kiwi sides)


The chiefs are the team to beat but four kiwi sides are showing form at the right time


The Boys have suffered with players out of form and a failure to adapt their direct game plan from last year but I’ve been amazed to read other so called Blues fans give absolutely zero credit for yesterdays win to any players

It’s the same old Rieko and Beauden out, no Blues players should be in the ABs etc


I saw a real shift in determination yesterday by these players so all the pressure is on the chiefs

Load More Comments

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

R
RedWarriors 3 hours ago
'Not a normal rugby team' - The Leinster flex that floored Jake White

I was actually at the match. Leinster were the outstanding team in the league stage. Leinster’s squad depth meant the Bulls could only nick a late win in Pretoria against an understrenght Leinster. Simple put, Leinster are significantly better this year compared to last. The Dublin match last year was a big win by Leinster. Yes they won by a point in the RDS three years ago but thats not relevant to yesterday.

As Leinster are such a dangerous team, it forces an opponent to focus on a strategy to undermine them and that way get their game on the pitch. Leinster allowed that against Northampton. But that was not going to happen again. The Bulls attack in last 10 minutes of the first half was as savage as anything in the URC this year. Yet Leinsters coaching plan repelled them allied to savage commitment from the players. The defense was outstanding, pressure at breakdown outstanding. Leinster did not win the European cup but arguably at their best this year no other European team could reach that height. They reached that yesterday. Leinster completely removed Bulls ability to hurt them.

And Croke Park….100 years ago the Brits fired machine guns into spectators injuring 100s and killing loads. No Irish team ever performs badly there. Same with Irish supporters. Opposition players might as well be Brit Tommies with machine guns.

I think a great Leinster team, played a great game plan, to the height of their power in a horrible stadium for opponents. If Bulls score before half time they were back in the match. They went down, but they went down fighting.

12 Go to comments
LONG READ
LONG READ Leicester's modern day greats look to cement their legacy knowing sport rarely does fairytale endings Leicester's modern day greats look to cement their legacy knowing sport rarely does fairytale endings
Search