Rugby: Retaining Ioane brothers crucial for Blues future prospects

Akira Ioane and Rieko (below) have shown an ability to create something out of nothing. Photo / Photosport

Winning a few games is high on the list, but the real priority for the Blues in the next few weeks is to ensure Rieko and Akira Ioane stay at the club for the long term.

In this season of gloom, the Ioane boys have been the only beacon of hope for the beleaguered club. The pair, almost on their own, have given the Blues whatever tenuous grip they have held in their last six games.

In those desperate times they have so often struck, it has been Akira or Rieko who has broken the spell — done something to drag the Blues back into the game.

It was Akira who scored a miracle solo try against the Chiefs in round two to spark his team back into the game and he did so again the following week at Ellis Park.

He's increasingly becoming their spark, the player who even the most senior men in the team are looking to for inspiration.

Rieko, despite not yet having found his best form, has still managed to show flashes of his blinding acceleration, power and awareness.

Perhaps of more interest is that he's shown he's not just a runner and he's in possession of a wider range of skills that allude to the probability that he will transition to the midfield.

It is our top priority for those two to stay here.

Tana Umaga on keeping the Ioane brothers at the Blues

It's obvious any side with the Ioane boys is going to be taken seriously and will have the potential to break the best defence and score tries from nothing.What they have confirmed in 2018 is that they are the two players around whom the future of the franchisse will be built.

As long as they stay.

Both the brothers are off contract at the end of this year and Blues coach Tana Umaga, not renowned for overstatement or hyperbole, is clear the team's future depends heavily on ensuring they retain the pair.

To lose one or both of the Ioanes would be disastrous to their prospects: not just because the club would be losing such phenomenal talent, but because it would also send a powerful, negative message to the wider player pool in the region that world class individuals developed in Auckland aren't prepared to commit to the Blues.

The club has rarely been able to attract established players from around the country. Without a winning culture and Auckland's exorbitant house prices, the best players don't want to come to the Blues. But it would be a new, almost untenable state of affairs if home grown talent such as the Ioanes, with a strong emotional connection to the club, were no longer willing to stay.

Rieko Ioane of the Blues. Photo / Photosport

"I think it is huge," says Umaga about the need to retain the Ioanes. "They are a big part of the way we are playing. Their leadership — they are obviously very young — but the confidence they give to others and their love for this region and this club, they are very determined young men. It is our top priority for those two to stay here."

Keeping the brothers in Auckland is a two-part process. The first is that they have to commit to New Zealand Rugby.

Rieko, having established himself as an All Blacks regular and the most exciting emerging player on the planet, has already fielded an offer from the national body.

NZR want the 21-year-old to sign a five-year deal to keep him in New Zealand through to the 2023 World Cup and they have previously suggested they will be willing to make Ioane one of their top earners despite his age and lack of experience.

The Blues now have to wait for Ioane to agree terms with NZR and hope that as an Aucklander — he was born and raised in the city — the youngster will make the same commitment to the Blues.

Akira, 22, has come of age this season, consistently delivering more physical performances at No 8 which have put him in the frame to be part of the All Blacks' set-up in the June tests against France.

The Blues need their two best players to publicly endorse the club and signal they believe all is not broken in the midst of yet another sustained run of awful results which has yeilded a solitary victory in six outings.

"What it will say to our other young players coming through? It will put things in perspective for people who want to sign to play here if we can sign those guys," says Umaga. "It shows that, one, they believe in where the club is going, and two, it would help show their commitment to the cause.

"We are obviously not going well in terms of performance, so it would also show they believe there is light at the end of the tunnel."