Rugby: Kaino leads from front for Blues

Jerome Kaino. Photo / Supplied

The Blues opened their pre-season account with a convincing 36-22 victory over the Hurricanes in Whangarei on Saturday.

Playing in front of a boisterous 6000-strong crowd, the Blues outscored the visitors by six tries to one.

New Zealand Player of the Year Jerome Kaino captained the side in Keven Mealamu's absence and he picked up where he left off during the World Cup, turning in an immensely physical performance.

Playing No8 rather than his usual position of blindside flanker, Kaino put in a few early bone-crunching tackles before crashing over for the first try from a rolling maul after just six minutes. Rookie George Moala bashed his way through to score after 16 minutes.

With the Blues leading 12-0 at the end of the first quarter, Dan Kirkpatrick narrowed the deficit for the Hurricanes with a penalty kick, but a Chris Lowrey intercept try followed by another five-pointer to Anthony Boric saw the Blues race out to a 26-3 halftime lead.

However with an almost entirely different team taking the field in the second half, the Blues lost momentum and allowed the Hurricanes to claw their way back into contention.

A converted runaway try to wing Julian Savea and another penalty kick saw the Hurricanes close the gap to just 26-22 at the end of the third quarter. However the Blues rallied in the final quarter to close out the match.

Pat Lam would be pleased with his team's efforts, particularly the defence. However discipline was likely to be a focal point in the post-match review as numerous infringements kept the visitors in the game.

Rudi Wulf was a standout at fullback while wider training group players James Parsons, Wayne Ngaluafe and Dan Pryor showed they are up to this level of rugby.

The Blues' next pre-season game is against the Melbourne Rebels in Melbourne on Saturday.

The Rebels were dispatched 36-0 by the Chiefs on Friday night in Geelong, while in Friday's other pre-season encounter Ryan Crotty scored a hat-trick as the Crusaders hammered the Highlanders 47-19 in Greymouth.