Chiefs 63
Blues 34
The Blues are aptly named.
Like the music, they are soaked in pain.
Whether the wider rugby and sporting audience care all that much about the Super 14, and rugby in general, is certainly the question of the day.
Defeats stir the blood though, even if it is without the
passions that infused rugby in those fabled good old days.
Like the proverbial bad penny, the Blues keep turning up in the wrong way. And nothing hurts as much as seeing the Waikato mob toss them around like a rag doll, as happened in Hamilton on Saturday night.
How could our once mighty rugby province have fallen like this. The Blues were so bad they should front up, apologise to the city, and give their bonus point back.
Everybody is trying to save rugby at the moment, but I'd just settle for them saving Auckland rugby. And like it or not, and despite the generic name, the Blues do represent this city. They are Auckland's rugby team.
The Blues are apparently beyond saving though. As the league guru Jack Gibson famously said about many troubled footy clubs, the rot is in the woodwork.
Every year is the same - promising results, promising players, little hope of a trophy.
Their defenders might point to good results overseas, and a reasonable position on the points table. Who cares?
Because no Auckland team should get ripped up in Hamilton like that. There is no shame in losing at Waikato Stadium, but there is shame in losing in that manner. The game was over after 20 minutes. Some no-holds-barred local derby that was.
The irony of professional rugby is that it has destroyed the team in the richest part of the country.
Professionalism has wrecked Auckland rugby. That's partly because rugby in this country isn't actually run on professional lines.
New Zealand rugby is dominated by a centrally run contracts system. Auckland rugby is now run by ineffective bureaucrats who are unable to use the city's economic advantages to smash their way over opposing provinces.
But let's spare the NZRU here, because the greatest blame lies within the Auckland Rugby Union where faceless pen pushers are shoving Auckland rugby over a cliff. The NZRU should be cringing at the waste which is going on - especially in these troubled times - in this country's biggest rugby market.
And before anyone accuses me of character assassination, I'd point out that in this regard there is nothing actually to shoot at.
It was sickening to watch this latest version of the Blues capitulate against a Chiefs side with a terrific backline, athletic loose forwards, but only an average pack overall. Where was the pride, the desperation, a sense that there were bods out there willing to die for the cause.
Furthermore, if Auckland rugby knew what it was doing, Sitiveni Sivivatu and probably Stephen Donald would be playing for the Blues.
A sharp and desperate Auckland administration would have had the nous to at least spot Counties import Sivivatu - he was very hard to miss - and its chequebook, history and facilities would have secured him. Waikato shouldn't have stood a chance, the way Otago were left grasping once Canterbury knocked on Richie McCaw's door.
The pursuit of Sivivatu should have been like Manchester United and Grimsby Town chasing the same player. Auckland rugby is now so incompetent that not only does it fail to secure great players from elsewhere, it loses great players to Waikato.
If Auckland rugby was run by strong individuals who knew what they were doing, rather than being patsies of the NZRU system, the Blues would be firing on all cylinders and enthusing a city of proud rugby heritage. Auckland would be bullying its way around rugby, instead of getting sand kicked in its face.
No doubt we'll get the same old drivel about the Blues rebuilding, which they've been doing since about 1997.
The Blues were rubbish on Saturday. Embarrassing. A joke. Naive. Buffoons.
The Crusaders may not be the force they once were, but they wouldn't allow themselves to get shoved around like nobodies.
The Crusaders seem to come from somewhere. Canterbury's history of rugged intransigence - just ask the 1971 Lions - has laid foundations.
The moment Fitzy and his mates departed, Auckland chucked its magnificent heritage out the window.
The 2009 Super 14 season is on the slide for the Blues.
It would be appropriate here to suggest calling in some of the great heroes of Auckland's rugby past, as a rallying point for these pretenders. But the players have probably never even heard of them.
Before signing off, a hearty congratulations to the Chiefs, for a terrific performance. If the Chiefs get enough front football, they have a backline to die for with loose forwards who cause further havoc.
Maybe Ian Foster is ready to throw off the loser's tag, although the jury is out on whether his forwards are good enough to stand up to the tests they will face overseas.
