Perhaps strangely, the best story – certainly the one no-one saw coming four months ago – is that the Blues may have found themselves the unlikeliest of unlikely heroes in Harry Plummer.
His ability to manage their gameplan has been underappreciated and undervalued by everyone other than his team-mates and coaching staff.
The Blues’ revival under new coach Vern Cotter has been built on a simple yet exhaustive desire to break opponents in the middle of the field through endless, destructive ball carriers.
Cotter arrived with a singular focus on lowering body heights in the contact area to improve the dynamism of the forwards’ ball carrying and clean-out work.
All season – including the semifinal defeat of the Brumbies – the Blues have been able to advance 30m to 40m on the back of four to five phases of clinical, destructive pick-and-drive ball carries that often see power wings Caleb Clarke and Mark Telea get involved to do some of the heavy lifting.
It’s proven an almost unstoppable way to build momentum, set the defence pedalling backwards and create space and opportunity.
And it’s the way that Plummer has taken advantage of the opportunities his pack has presented that has been the surprise of the season.
He’s been very good at balancing when to pass, when to kick and when to run – and he’s been just as adept at knowing to whom he should pass, where he should kick and into what holes he should run.
His execution has been just as sharp as his decision-making and Plummer has carefully and methodically steered his ship with the sort of authority and control few imagined he possessed.
For years, the Blues have lamented their lack of quality at first five-eighths; ironically, having lured Beauden Barrett to Auckland to fix the problem, the solution has been a local boy under their noses all this time.
The Blues’ simple, direct rugby and Plummer’s accurate, low-risk approach have proven a surprisingly potent combination, and his value was perhaps best illustrated in semifinals weekend not by what he did in Auckland, but what the Hurricanes didn’t get right in Wellington.
Whereas Plummer struck the right balance in his game management, Brent Cameron didn’t get the kick-run-pass ratios right for the Hurricanes.
The No 1 team, playing on their home ground, spent the first half kicking the ball away, hoping a tricky wind would bamboozle the Chiefs’ back three.
But it was a strategy that not only depowered the Hurricanes as it left the likes of Brayden Iose, Peter Lakai, Jordie Barrett, Billy Proctor and Salesi Rayasi chasing shadows, it played directly into the Chiefs’ hands.
The visitors were both better at the prolonged bouts of kick tennis and better at mixing up their use of possession as demonstrated with the two counterpunch tries they scored in the opening 10 minutes.
The game only turned in the second half when the Hurricanes kicked less. But the damage was done and it illustrated just how important it is in these tight encounters, where line speed is incredible, to vary the attack and present defences with an element of doubt about where the threats lie.
What makes Plummer’s role in the final yet more intriguing is that he will be matched against a No 10 in Damian McKenzie who could hardly have a more contrasting approach.
McKenzie has a wider skillset, a greater array of personal weaponry and a greater appetite for risk as he presents such an individual threat that he’s licensed to back his speed and agility to challenge defences.
The Chiefs man will buzz about at first receiver, he’ll pop up in the backfield, and he’ll happily play kick tennis – and for 80 minutes it will feel like the game is almost all about him.
In stark contrast, Plummer will be light touch – a clearing kick here, a short pass there and a little probe down the blindside to create what will almost be rugby’s play-making version of the tortoise and the hare.
And just like the tortoise, there is something compelling about Plummer’s steadiness and resolve.
