The selection headache has kicked in for Blues coach Pat Lam following his side's 36-22 win over the Hurricanes in their first Super 15 warm-up match at Whangarei's Toll Stadium.
To the untrained eye, it may have looked like classic preseason - slightly disorganised rugby - but Lam was impressed with his troops and said there were plenty of positives to come out of the game ahead of their next warm-up match against the Melbourne Rebels on Saturday, at Melbourne's AAMI Stadium.
While All Blacks Jerome Kaino and Anthony Boric were included in the starting line-up, Lam kept several other Rugby World Cup winners sidelined, including Piri Weepu, Ali Williams and Kevin Mealamu, allowing them more time off before starting another intensive year of rugby. Their absence on the field gave other team members a chance to stamp their mark in the team, including Wider Training Group players, who left Lam feeling confident he has depth in the squad ahead of the Super 15 opener on February 24 against the Crusaders.
Wider Training Group player Hadleigh Parkes set fellow WTG member and Northland flanker Dan Pryor up for a try late in the game. Parkes did a solid job at inside centre in the absence of All Black Ma'a Nonu, who is in Japan playing club rugby for the Ricoh Black Rams. The team is looking likely to make the finals, which means Nonu will not be available until round five of the Super 15 season.
The first points of the game came five minutes into the match, when the Blues won a lineout and their forwards snaffled the ball and rolled over the line, with their skipper - Kaino - grounding it. Michael Hobbs, who won first dibs on the hotly contested Number 10 jersey converted the try, giving the Blues an early advantage.
The Blues kept the Hurricanes pinned in their half and the Blues forward pack eventually broke through Wellington's defensive line to get the ball out to lurking centre George Moala who added another try.
Errors plagued both sides during the first half, and the Blues were penalised as the game neared the halfway mark, and Hurricanes first five David Kirkpatrick successfully goaled. Blues flanker Chris Lowrey quickly struck back, intercepting a pass from Wellington fullback Andre Taylor and scoring a try which was converted. Boric found a gap in the Hurricanes defence and added another try to give the Blues a convincing 26-3 lead at half time.
Both sides were shuffled for the second half, and the Hurricanes quickly set about clawing their way back into the game, with the boot of Beauden Barrett. The Blues ill-discipline proved costly and Barrett successfully landed four penalty goals, and converted a try by fullback replacement Julian Savea. The game swung back in favour of the Blues when replacement centre Rene Ranger made a trade-mark break and offloaded to wing Sherwin Stowers and sent him across the chalk.
Northland's Ranger was dynamic on the park in his first game since he suffered a lacerated kidney half way through last year's ITM Cup season.
Hobbs' replacement Gareth Anscombe missed the conversion but Pryor's try with three minutes remaining secured the game for the Blues - a game which Lam said he was glad was out of the way. "We have one game under our belts now and have something to work on when we head into camp on Monday," Lam said after the match. The Blues are in camp at Whangaparaoa until Thursday before flying out to play the Rebels.
"Some of the guys haven't played rugby since August and after all our hard work on our systems and structures, to get six tries to one is really positive ... there are work-ons - we gave away too many penalties and the referees pulled us up on, which we wanted them to do. We have three games to solidify players' positions - it's a bit of a selection headache for Bryce (Woodward - assistant coach), but we're okay with that. It shows we have a lot of depth within the squad," Lam said.
The curtain raiser was the North vs South Zone Maori teams in the Johnny Issacs Northland Maori Tournament. See page 9.