KEY POINTS:
Blues 35 Crusaders 24
The muted celebrations in Eden Park's home changing room on Friday night left coach David Nucifora smiling inside.
His side, a turbulent mix of the erratic and sublime last year, had just plundered four points from a deserved win against the defending champions.
But no one saw that as cause to whoop it up. As far as the coach was concerned, that was a sign his troops are starting to realise that Super 14 success doesn't come from one performance.
The 35-24 victory was a solid start. A promising beginning but no more. As Nucifora said: "These players are realising that this championship is about consistency. I was down in the sheds and no one was really whooping it up - which is a sign that the players realise we were probably two or three tries short of where we should have been.
"It was a good, positive performance. I was really pleased that we created and initiated our own tries but I thought, with the number of line breaks we made, we should have had more points.
"There were quite a few areas where we were nowhere near where we need to be."
One of those areas was the scrum, which started to creak badly in the final quarter.
Neither Nucifora nor Crusaders captain Corey Flynn felt the battle had been affected by the new laws and both were adamant referee Paul Honiss had handled the engagement as they had expected.
"I thought we scrummaged bloody well," was Flynn's matter-of-fact assessment and it was hard to disagree.
New skipper Troy Flavell, who was frustrated with himself and referee Honiss for yellow-carding him, felt there was no cause for alarm as the problems essentially stemmed from poor timing.
The Blues struggled at the scrum in their final pre-season game and with Honiss controlling the engage procedure at a different tempo, the Blues were forced to adjust again.
"I think it might change from week to week with the timing of the pause, engage call so no one can pre-empt it," said Flavell.
The incentive for the Blues forwards is that they know if they sharpen their timing and work on their cohesion this week, they will create a stable platform for a backline that gave a sense that magical things lie ahead.
Isa Nacewa mixed his game nicely and may now be mighty hard to dislodge out of the No 10 shirt.
The Blues buried their creative instincts too deep last year, preferring instead to put their faith in structure and field position.
It left too many intuitive players out of their comfort zone but Nacewa played like a man who had licence to fling it about if he thought it was on.
That proactive stance produced some sharp interchanges and afforded Isaia Toeava the space he needed to make an awful nuisance of himself.
What had Nucifora smiling widest, though, was not the sight of his backline reconnecting with their natural game, it was the fact he could empty his bench and see the intensity lift and the skills remain.
Luke McAlister made a dramatic impact when he busted up the middle and Anthony Tuitavake didn't look bothered whether he played on the wing or at centre.
Gus Collins dragged his old bones off the bench to good effect and Anthony Boric was hungry when he got let loose late in the piece.
Some tough calls lie ahead for Nucifora, particularly in the backs, where he is going to have to work out how to accommodate Tuitupou, Toeava and McAlister in his midfield.
Mind you, trying to squeeze so much talent into one team is nothing new for the Blues, which probably explains why current and former Auckland players Brent Ward, Rico Gear, Rua Tipoki and Mose Tuiali'i were all wearing red and black.
Blues 34
(I. Toeava, R. Wulf, D. Howlett tries; I. Nacewa 5 pens, 2 cons)
Crusaders 25
(C. Flynn, M. Tuiali'i, R. Gear tries; Brent Ward 2 pens, S. Brett 2 cons). HT: 19-13.
