Desperate Blues must shake off distractions
By MARC HINTON - RugbyHeaven | Wednesday, 30 April 2008
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The captain's off, the star playmaker is about to follow suit, the coach's bags are packed and goodness knows how many others are getting ready to jump ship. Somehow, amid all these distractions, the Blues have to launch their three-week Mission Impossible starting in Brisbane on Friday night.

The omens are not what you might call encouraging. The Blues have dug themselves into such a hole with five defeats in their last seven matches, that there are essentially no more tomorrows in terms of their Super 14 playoff aspirations.

The Aucklanders must take the maximum haul Friday night against the Queensland Reds in Brisbane, then follow suit in the remaining two matches against the Highlanders (away) and Hurricanes (home) to give themselves any chance of a second straight semifinal appearance.

Even then, the 41 points they'd reach might still not be enough. That will be in the lap of the gods, and how the tight race for positions three and four play out over the final three weeks.

The Blues today announced a team to face the Reds reflective of the effort they put in during last week's 22-26 defeat to runaway competition leaders the Crusaders in Christchurch. They were judged generally unlucky to lay a promising attacking effort to waste and not knock over the red and blacks.

Blues coach David Nucifora has made just one change to his starting XV, bringing in Isaia Toeava for a long overdue start at second five and dropping Benson Stanley to the reserves. He has also elected to continue the experiment of playing Nick Evans at fullback and Isa Nacewa at first five.

Stanley's demotion was tagged a "breather" after a long campaign at No 12, but the reality is the midfield combination of Toeava and Anthony Tuitavake is probably their most effective. Tuitavake was a revelation last week in the No 13 jersey, while halfback Taniela Moa and wing David Smith both contributed to a vastly improved attacking effort.

For all that it will be interesting to see how the Blues keep their focus. Already this week skipper Troy Flavell has confirmed he's definitely heading offshore at the end of this campaign (to Japan) and star off-season signing Nick Evans continued to bat away the growing clamour from up north that he's set to follow in Dan Carter's vapour trail and take up a big-money deal, most probably in the English premiership.

Flavell said he was "negotiating a deal at the moment" and though he couldn't say just yet where he was heading he made it more than clear that he was definitely on his bike.

"I've been around for a while now and I'm getting a bit long in the tooth. It's time to move on, I guess," he shrugged.

Evans, too, did little to dispel suggestions that he's going to be the second All Black No 10 to depart, with Harlequins the latest club tipped to be at the top of the queue to land his signature.

He told reporters at Blues training he wouldn't be influenced by Carter's decision but hinted he could be close to making up his mind on which of the lucrative offers he should accept. "The longer I push it out the worse it will be. I would rather make a decision on my future – whether it is in New Zealand or overseas – get it done and get it behind me."

But Evans denied that the seemingly never-ending negotiation process was a distraction. "I don't think it affects my rugby. I have been around long enough for it not to get to me. It is a tough decision but I have to put a decision on it and that is sooner rather than later."

Given that Nucifora is also said to be heading to the role in charge of the ARU's High Performance Unit, with just contractual issues to be settled before the appointment is confirmed, it is little wonder the Blues resemble an outfit that have badly taken their eye off the ball.

After three weeks, when the rugby and competition points were flowing plentifully, they looked semifinal certs. Now it's impossible to make any sort of a case for them being among the competition's best teams, even if they did make a dramatic improved against the Crusaders.

Nucifora was adamant the Evans-Nacewa switch had been a success despite both players appearing to be unsettled by the move in Christchurch. Nacewa's tactical kicking was wayward and Evans made one or two schoolboy errors in a performance well below his best.

"We feel Isa strength's are in organisation and communicating, and that worked well for us, and having Nick at fullback gave him a bit more space to attack. We felt those things went well and put the Crusaders under quite a bit of pressure."

The Blues coach has been impressed with the dramatic improvements made this season by the Reds, and isn't surprised having worked closely with new coach Phil Mooney in the past.

"I think you can see what he's done with the team. He's tried to open their game up. They played some good football the other night in parts. They've tipped over a couple of reasonable teams and been competitive against a lot of others, and they're at home ... there are no easy weeks in this competition."

Nucifora, though, shrugged off suggestions his Blues have major points to prove over these last three weeks.

"I don't think we've got anything to prove other than we need to play well, and if we play well the outcomes will come for us, and we're going to be there or thereabouts. We just have to make sure we're there, right on the edge of it."

But the Blues coach also acknowledged there was a risk in becoming too attack-focused in the search for maximum points from here on in.

"We've got to be careful - if you take the handbrake off and go without structure, then you won't apply pressure. No team in this competition is that poor you can just go willy-nilly at them. You've got to be organised, and you only accumulate points against teams by applying continual pressure.

"We're not going to get misled by the circumstances of the points ladder with regards to how we need play."

Flavell said the performance against the Crusaders had been a welcome confidence boost and that it was just final execution that continued to let his side down. He said circumstances would emphasise the need to attack and that might be a good thing over the run home.

"We've just got to prove to each other we're a capable side. Sure, we haven't reached our potential this season, but it would be good to go out these last three games and finish strongly. We know we've still got a chance."

BLUES: 15 Nick Evans, 14 David Smith, 13 Anthony Tuitavake, 12 Isaia Toeava, 11 Rudi Wulf, 10 Isa Nacewa, 9 Taniela Moa; 8 Nick Williams, 7 Daniel Braid, 6 Jerome Kaino, 5 Troy Flavell (captain), 4 Anthony Boric, 3 John Afoa, 2 Keven Mealamu, 1 Tony Woodcock. Reserves: 16 Nick White, 17 Bronson Murray, 18 Kurtis Haiu, 19 Justin Collins, 20 Danny Lee, 21 Benson Stanley, 22 Ben Atiga.