The Stormers clash is likely to show the loyal supporters how hungry Pat Lam's boys have become this season.
Get ready for an explosive Super 14 clash between the Blues and Stormers at Eden Park tomorrow night.
I've got to give a big thumbs up here to Pat Lam and his team for what they achieved against the Bulls last week. I saw Pat during the week and he
certainly had a smile - he believes a lot of hard work since last year is starting to come to fruition.
The major advance is that the players are understanding the gameplan and executing it at the right moments. We also see the Blues are far more hungry on defence. I thought their defence was absolutely superb against the Bulls - it was like watching the great Blues teams of the '90s.
It was a must-win game for the Blues and everything came right on the night.
As spectators, we don't see the enormous effort that goes into sports teams and such is the nature of sport that the hard work is not always evident from the stands. But over time, good planning will come through and Blues supporters will be hoping, and growing confident, that we are finally seeing consistent evidence of this.
There is often talk about leadership. But I believe that one of Lam's aims has been to make sure his players are not over-burdened with leadership to the exclusion of their performances. A prime example is Jerome Kaino, who has been around a long time. Lam has not wanted to put too much extra pressure on him and has instead let Kaino get on with his own game.
A mark of a good coach is being able to read players and know when to let a player do that, whereas other senior players thrive taking leadership roles on. Sometimes you can have too many leaders and they actually forget to play the game.
Kaino is going to be involved in the key area against the Stormers - the clash between the loose forwards. What people don't realise is that the Stormers are probably the most physical of the South African sides.
The Bulls may be the kings of the set piece, but the Stormers are very aggressive around the tackle confrontation area which is exactly where the Blues excelled last week.
With the menacing Schalk Burger at the forefront, the Stormers won't take a backward step in this zone. Burger is quite intimidating and a lot will be resting on his shoulders when it comes to firing up his team.
If the Blues can start off the way they finished against the Bulls, there will be a wave of confidence in their team. I know Lam is very confident and so he should be - the guy deserves a bit of praise now and then.
The Bulls will be smarting, but I don't think that will be enough for them to topple the Chiefs. The loss of Mils Muliaina is a huge blow, but I think the Chiefs - masters of the running game - will rattle their visitors and win.
There is new talk of a big-money north v south clash and I would certainly support the concept. Under the Northern Hemisphere proposal, this could involve a one-off game between the winners of the Super 14 and Europe's Heineken Cup, although there is also talk in Australia of a mini-tournament. The problem is obvious, of course - how would you fit this into an already congested calendar. I went to a game in France in 1997 when the Super 12 champion Blues absolutely annihilated Brive, who were the European champions.
