Gregor Paul: How the Blues turned their Super Rugby season around

Dalton Papalii of the Blues celebrates after scoring a try with Mark Telea. Photo / Getty Images

OPINION:

Even in these commercially distorted times where big business and the mega rich have distorted the true course of professional sport to some extent, every now and again a story emerges that has a universal feel-good element to it.

The Blues, after 18 seasons in the wilderness, have made a Super Rugby final and Eden Park will at last have a big moment that doesn't relate to either the All Blacks or Six60, but instead to their long-suffering core tenant who have had such severe mini slumps within their prolonged slump that almost everyone has wondered whether a day like next Saturday would ever come.

To be frank, and not unduly unkind either, the Blues for much of the last 18 years have been a shambles.

It's a thesis topic explaining why, but the executive summary could be condensed to this: badly managed off the field as a result of being riddled with internal politics, which has spread through to the playing staff.

Star-stacked teams have been put together and none have delivered. Coaches have come full of big ideas and left a few years later, broken, uncertain and doubting themselves long before the end of their tenures.

Everyone knows the history as it has been trawled through so many times even casual followers can recite most of it by rote.

But it has to be acknowledged, absorbed in its gory detail to put this weekend coming into the appropriate context. And specifically, the earlier part of this season has to be dragged up as it gives the story the Hollywood kick that it needs to truly set the scene.

The Blues came into Super Rugby Aotearoa as a genuine prospect of winning it. But they killed all hope of that in the middle of their campaign when they lost their discipline, their shape, their belief and their ability to stay calm in the big moments.

For four consecutive weeks they played headless rugby that was defined by dumb, recidivist offending and the pain of their failure was made so much more acute by knowing they were so much better than they appeared.

There they were in late April, at rock bottom and here they are now in mid-June, on the cusp of a title. And how they got from one place to the other should elicit equal parts admiration and inspiration.

The Blues picked themselves up in Super Rugby Transtasman with the old-fashioned remedy of hard work, patience and a refusal to be satisfied.

They were best typified by a player who few would recognise as a star or even recognise full-stop. That was Gerard Cowley-Tuioti – the big lock producing non-stop graft that ground his team forward and gave his peers someone to emulate in terms of workrate and commitment.

The return of captain Patrick Tuipulotu gave the team the calm voice and figurehead they had been missing. Akira Ioane, quiet and slightly off in Super Rugby Aotearoa, found a new level and Finlay Christie, at last free of pain and able to string a run of games together, brought the decision-making and accuracy the team needed at halfback.

Zarn Sullivan's cultured left boot delivered a mature, strategic kicking element to the gameplan and Dalton Papali'i glued everything together as the club's best player and indefatigable force of nature.

A nod too in the direction of the coaching staff, who must have been seeing ghosts of the Blues' coaching past earlier in the year and fearing that they too would be haunted forever by their time at the club.

Leon MacDonald, Tom Coventry, Tana Umaga and Daniel Halangahu held their nerves, though, to tighten the set-piece, to intensify the defence and instil a clarity of vision, understanding and decision-making across the board to ensure that opportunities were taken and not squandered.

To bounce back from the depths like this took courage, resilience and commitment. There were sticky moments against the Reds in particular where the Blues had to take a few deep breaths, reset and ramp up.

They had to hold firm in their last match, too, face the pressure of knowing they had to win and get the job done against an opponent who others have dangerously underrated this year.

Sport is at its best when teams defy the odds, rewrite their histories and find ways to overcome.

The Blues desperately want the title, not a final, but for everyone else – especially all those who have sat at Eden Park over the years and experienced nothing but misery – it will already feel like there is a reason to be celebrating.