KEY POINTS:
I'm sure knives will be sharpened for Blues coach David Nucifora but, with the exception of one thing, I don't think anyone could blame him for the Blues being pushed aside by the Bulls.
That exception was the non-selection of Ali Williams. The decision to bench him for disciplinary reasons looked wrong, felt wrong and was wrong, I think. So was the decision not to bring him off the bench until too late - when the match was pretty much over.
While I think Nucifora got that wrong, I don't think you could point the finger anywhere except at the players. The Blues were out-muscled, out-passioned and out-run and the big negative, for me, was the way their forwards were bullied by the Bulls. They were grinning after 20m when they were setting up for a scrum. They knew they had it.
It's hard to put a finger on the reasons when things go wrong for a team like the Blues. They have played well up until now. They have won attractively and ugly, winning even when they have not performed well. But are they a bad team because of their present slump?
Obviously not. Most will point to Nucifora's reluctance to re-introduce his All Blacks fully, leaving out Joe Rokocoko and benching Williams. Some will hint there might be some discord in the ranks with that.
But, even though I think Williams should have started, I don't think that's it. You never know how happy a team is unless you are in the dressing room with them but they look happy enough to me and they certainly tried hard. I couldn't fault them for effort.
Some will point to the man-management of the Crusaders' Robbie Deans who brought his re-conditioned All Blacks into the playing side while Nucifora didn't. Someone was always going to be right and someone was always going to be wrong with those approaches.
However, in reality, Deans had seven All Blacks to bring back and Nucifora three. Deans had to bring his players back into the action but it was less important for Nucifora, especially with his team winning as well as they were.
But there is no doubt the Blues are going to have to lift the mongrel factor and really boss the forwards if they are going to win the Super 14.
You could see it in the Blues' attack. They didn't look like scoring a try until Troy Flavell's effort after it was all over. The Bulls' defence was good but the Blues' attackers suddenly looked aimless.
They had no depth on the ball and the Bulls' defence easily pushed them across field.
You could see it in the play of Isa Nacewa. He was a revelation earlier in the season when he had space and time but now defences are working him out a bit and - even more important, I think - when his forwards do not win him that space and time, he has struggled to produce.
When all is said and done, the Blues might have lost a home semifinal chance but they can still beat anybody on their day and their playoff hopes are very much alive - even if they do have yet another potential banana skin taking on John Mitchell's men in Perth. And any reasonable person would say that it is the Hurricanes who have woefully under-achieved this year. With their All Blacks and without them.
