Rugby: Blues will look to tame Bulls in Africa

Keven Mealamu was not at his best on Friday. File photo / Greg Bowker

It's early to be fretting about the big picture, but angst levels in the Blues camp were rising yesterday as they left for South Africa charged with securing their first win in 2012 against either the Bulls or Stormers.

And they will have to do so without Jerome Kaino or Rudi Wulf - the former has a sore shoulder that may recover by next week, the latter is out for three-to-four weeks with a damaged knee.

Ideally, the Blues would have been travelling with morale boosting wins against both the Crusaders and Chiefs behind them. Instead they leave these shores winless and no doubt disillusioned by their display in Hamilton that was sloppy and strangely lethargic.

At a time of the season when the Blues should be full of running, sharp into contact and hungry to be on the ball, they had the look of a team that had been on the road for weeks without a decent break.

Even the normally disciplined and committed Keven Mealamu and Kaino were some way off their best and without an increase in intensity, accuracy and discipline, the Blues really could be four games into their campaign and still searching for their first win.

The last time the Blues played the Bulls in Pretoria they were hammered 59-26. The Stormers will be a tougher challenge again and the Blues can't possibly gain the results they want without major renovations to their foundations. Their lineout was again unreliable in Hamilton - taking too long to find its rhythm and range. By the time the Blues had any regular possession from the touchline the game was long gone. Their defence is another top priority to be fixed.

The issue wasn't their structure or linespeed, it was their basic, individual technique. Defence requires attitude and desire to be effective and too many individuals were weak in the contact.

Then there was ball retention. The Blues coughed up a staggering amount of possession. The fundamentals were awful - they just weren't there and without anything underpinning their performance, the Blues disintegrated.

A two-game tour of South Africa is as much opportunity as it is threat. Loftus is a brutal place to go but it's also likely to offer a fast track and a dry ball - conditions that could help the Blues succeed with their ball in hand game. They will also be able to introduce Ma'a Nonu whose direct running and ability to smash over the gainline will be warmly welcomed.

The Blues were vulnerable to the Chiefs' rush defence and shovelled the ball sideways - hoping someone would eventually penetrate. They need some kind of attacking thrust close to the ruck to be able to play the game on the front foot.

Time away, on the road, may be the catalyst they need to gel as a unit and find the cohesion of performance that they have spent the preseason aspiring to. Coach Pat Lam is hoping that proves to be the case: "Certainly two losses are not good and there are things we have to sort out.

"It's now time to show the character of the team and getting away is a chance for us to do that. It's not daunting, [to play the Bulls and Stormers] what it is is a challenge for us as a group. For us we'll regroup, get away to Africa and obviously take the lesson and move on. It's not the way you start it's the way you come back that makes a difference."