Gregor Paul: How the Blues, with Beauden Barrett, can replicate the Chiefs and become contenders

COMMENT:

If the theory is right, then when Beauden Barrett turns up at some stage for the Blues next year, he'll wave a magic wand and transform them into a championship team.

There's long been universal agreement from those who know plenty to those who know less, that Super Rugby is all about the No 10s. Have a good one and you are a chance of winning the title; don't have one and forget about it.

No team has strengthened this theory more than the Blues. When they won in 1996 and 1997 Carlos Spencer was the most exciting first five in the competition and when they won again in 2003, he produced what would still to this day be considered the most outrageously entertaining 14 weeks of rugby.

Spencer left in 2005 and took with him all hope of the Blues ever winning another title. Since he left the Blues have limped through endless hopeless seasons with no-names and no-hopers bungling away in the No 10 jersey.

It's not as if having a mediocre playmaker has been their only problem but still, the theory has long been that if they fixed their issues at No 10, they would fix everything.

So now we get the chance to find out if this has all been wishful thinking bunkum or rock solid analysis.

Long-suffering Blues sceptics will be wary about believing transformation could be this simple. The Blues, after all, were still fairly hopeless this year. They finished 13th, two of their campaign stalwarts, Ma'a Nonu and Melani Nanai have left and they have three halfbacks who between them can't get the job done.

To imagine that Barrett can simply turn up and change everything requires a considerable leap of faith, but there is a precedent when it comes to one man making all the difference.

The best example to see how much impact one playmaker can have is Aaron Cruden's move to the Chiefs in 2012.

The Chiefs had been a bit of a horror show in 2011 finishing 10th and the next year, after Cruden arrived, they were champions.

The year after they were also champions and they haven't missed the playoffs since 2011.

It's not quite presenting the whole picture, though, to suggest that the only arrival at the Chiefs in 2012 was Cruden and that he alone changed everything.

Dave Rennie also started as a new head coach, while Sonny Bill Williams and Brodie Retallick were added to the playing roster.

So there was a fair bit going on. But then in fairness, the picture at the Blues might be similar next year.

Leon MacDonald won't be a new coach as such next year, but the fact he was dropped into the role so late for this year's campaign and left to scramble before the start of the season, meant he never really had a fair chance of managing the team the way he would have liked.

He'll get that next year and could prove to be a Rennie-figure, while the Blues already have their Retallick.

Patrick Tuipulotu has the potential to be that same epic force in the middle of the field, running over the top of everything he finds in his path, cleaning out rucks with equally destructive capacity while also winning possession in the air.

The Blues of course, did lure Williams from the Chiefs in 2017, but he won't be around next year, meaning they need to find another high impact backline performer.

But could it be that Jordie Barrett is going to drop a bombshell in the next week or so and announce that he is heading to the Blues to join his brother?

He's been made a compelling offer to come and needs to decide whether he's going to stay with the Hurricanes, take up with the Blues or shift to the Highlanders.

If the Blues can snare him – and that has to be a strong possibility – they will have enough new bits and pieces at their disposal to instantly become a more dangerous and credible team.

Jordie Barrett continues to have his doubters but his error rate this year has reduced and he was the man who initially sparked the Hurricanes into life in the semifinal.

He's young, talented and eager and maybe most importantly he's got a booming right boot and the Blues, as well as Nanai played this year, have been screaming out for a fullback with a long kicking game.

It's maybe a step too far to believe they will go from 13th to winning the title but in signing Barrett they have pulled off one fairytale of sorts by providing definitive proof that if you kiss enough frogs, you will find your Prince Charming. Maybe they have another in them.