KEY POINTS:
It's funny that the season the Blues develop a 'P' habit, they find themselves back in contention. Now they are prepared, professional and passionate, they have started practising patience and persistence and it's all down to their pre-season.
Five games into the Super 14 and the Blues of
2007 have done enough to suggest they have cured most, if not all, of the ills that blighted their three previous campaigns.
On Friday night against the Highlanders, they took another step along their development curve with a performance that stayed on track when in days of old it might have come flying off the rails.
The Highlanders mustered some startlingly good scrambling defence and midway through the first half, the Blues were starting to panic and indulge in the daft.
But unlike those doomed Blues sides of old, this current lot have got the ability to adapt on the field. They went back into the sheds, talked about the need to improve accuracy and move the point of attack, then came out and did exactly that.
That might not seem the most concrete reason to start believing in a side but it represents a dramatic shift for the Blues. In five matches now, we have seen senior individuals take responsibility for the outcome.
The game plan is a nice mix of set-piece solidity, adventure and field position and, for the first time since 2003, the Blues appear to be succeeding by design rather than good fortune.
All this has come about because coach David Nucifora was smart enough to identify the problems and address them in the off-season.
"There are a lot of things we started to work on that we have built on this year," said Nucifora after the 28-9 defeat of the Highlanders.
"The players taking responsibility for their performance and preparation is one of the biggest things. They are contributing an enormous amount to what we do every week.
"They are in control on the field because of the work they have done. We helped them get the tools to do the work off the field but it is the players who are making the effort."
What that effectively means in plain language is that the players busted a gut in the off-season. They upped the intensity of their physical preparation and as a consequence have been able to finish every game strongly.
But under the guidance of assistant coach Joe Schmidt, they have also spent time on their mental preparation. There is no ambiguity - responsibility for performance lies with the individual.
The senior pros have spent time learning how to lead. The young guns have been encouraged to have a voice and as a consequence, there is an understanding that the mental and physical preparation has to be spot on for every game.
The squad have accepted it is not enough to dazzle one week, disappear the next.
The transformation has been driven as much by Nucifora as the players. The initial squad selection was far tighter. Recalling veteran prop Nick White was a smart move, as was grabbing David Holwell. Neither has featured yet but as Nucifora says: "We have a nice balance in the team of experienced and younger players. We have a bit more maturity and a bit more steel. Troy [Flavell] is doing a fantastic job. Five weeks into it, he keeps backing up with outstanding performances and the players keep following him.
"Nick White has been a huge contributor to us. David Holwell, who we have not seen on the field yet, has played a huge part off the field in what these guys are doing in their preparation."
Week to week, the selections have made more sense, too. Flavell has been an inspired choice as skipper and looks more settled at lock than he did at blindside last year.
Jerome Kaino and David Gibson have been rock solid at No 8 and halfback, giving the side stability they never had last year. And Isa Nacewa has been a revelation at first five, ably supported by Luke McAlister and Isaia Toeava, who must be one of the best midfield combinations in the competition.
The curious thing, though, is that the collective improvement is far greater than the sum of the individual improvements.
That's because the Blues now have a variation in their offensive screen. They no longer rely on going wide and then wide again. Against the Highlanders, there was some impressive pick and drive from the forwards. They went tight, stayed tight, ran up the guts one more time, then opened up.
It was unlike the Blues of old - these guys were thinking and understanding the dynamics of space and the need to trim structure with flair.
The Highlanders eventually wilted, with Toeava scoring his second try and Flavell the team's third in the final quarter.
It was just reward not only for the effort put in on the night but the effort put in during December and January - a period which Nucifora believes was critical to the way his side has flown out of the blocks.
"We said all along it was important for us to start the season and get wins on the board. We needed to get the right balance in our physical preparation but we also needed to do a lot of work on how we were going to play, how we approached the game and the mental skills of our players.
"We put a lot into it and I think it is giving us some reasonable rewards."
Blues 28 (I. Toeava 2, T. Flavell tries; L. McAlister 3 pens, 2 cons) Highlanders 9 (N. Evans 3 pens) Halftime 6-3.