KEY POINTS:
Anthony Tuitavake cut adrift from his team-mates on Friday night. As they took a big step away from the Super 14 playoffs, the North Harbour centre took a big step towards All Black selection.
He's looked sharp all season and in Christchurch, with his favoured No 13 on
his back, he played the hot knife to Caleb Ralph's butter.
The beauty of Tuitavake's work was that it required those around him to do nothing more complex than give him the ball.
They didn't need to work him into space and there was no need for a phalanx of advance-party dummy runners.
None of that matters with Tuitavake. As he showed in Christchurch, it is almost irrelevant where he gets the ball or how tightly marked he is; he'll still manage end up in open space behind the defence.
In one remarkable passage early in the second half he somehow managed to blast through two tackles, stay on his feet, regain his stride, veer infield and get to within three metres of the try-line before Sean Maitland wrapped him up in an excellent tackle.
Momentum took him within inches and on another night the TMO might have given it.
As his coach, David Nucifora, noted: "If he didn't make it to the line, to come out of that with a free kick against us was pretty soul-destroying. I thought at the least the tackle deserved either a penalty or a try from it, so we were unfortunate there."
In case there was any doubt whose side Lady Luck was on, a few minutes later Maitland appeared to have a foot in touch when he threw a crucial pass that led to the bonus-point try.
And it was a try that in a funny way kept the collective fate of the Blues entwined with the individual fortunes of Tuitavake.
The positional shuffling and personnel changes in the Blues backline gave them a more potent edge. It was the threat posed by Tuitavake and his ability to break the line, as he did spectacularly the first time he took possession, that appeared to instil confidence in his team-mates.
Simplistic maybe, but the Blues could come out of their final three games with 15 points if they focus on getting the ball to Tuitavake.
To do that, they would of course also need to maintain the quality of their Christchurch scrummaging effort, which was first class.
The intensity of their defensive effort has to remain at the Christchurch benchmark, too, as does their physicality at the collision, with the lineout in need of some attention.
Unfortunately the maths is stacking against them. Even 15 points might not be enough and the pained look clinging to Nucifora after the match stemmed from the knowledge that the Blues are no longer in control of their destiny.
Which is not ideal for Tuitavake, whose push for a test place really needs a platform in the playoffs. It's in the pressure games where the All Black selectors really start paying attention.
There are factors that weigh against Tuitavake. His lack of bulk being one. The All Black panel believe a No 13 needs to be around the 100kg mark.
Each week Tuitavake defies his stature, but it would be reassuring to see him do it in the knock-out rounds.
Even just to see him play a key role in three clinical Blues performances would help his cause. As has been the case for much of the season, the Blues were guilty of inaccuracies at critical junctures after having done all the hard work.
It's probably unfair on Tuitavake, but collective failings have a way of damning the faultless by association.
"The effort was outstanding but again the little things didn't go our way. Some of it was our own lack of execution," said Nucifora. "We followed the plan really well. It is a game of inches and I said earlier in the week it is about small amounts of percentages.
"We were dominant in the scrum and we went well in the tackle area but you only get a couple of opportunities at this level and we didn't nail them."
