Super Rugby Pacific final: Ending Blues’ title drought would crown Rieko Ioane’s career

Rieko Ioane says the Blues must temper their emotions with a performance focus to emerge victorious in Saturday's Super Rugby Pacific final. Photo / Photosport

Delivering an elusive Super Rugby championship to a city deprived of silverware would rank among the greatest achievements of Rieko Ioane’s career.

Ioane is an intensely proud Aucklander. He grew up through the Ponsonby ranks, donning Auckland’s blue and white hoops, idolising iconic Blues players and is now in his ninth season with the franchise.

He’s lived the dark days at the Blues, the coaching changes and frequent frustrations to ride the rebuild that culminates in Saturday’s home final against the Chiefs at Eden Park that sold out overnight.

Ioane has played 69 tests for the All Blacks and featured in two World Cups - starting at centre in last year’s one-point final loss to the Springboks in Paris.

Claiming the Blues’ first fully fledged Super Rugby title in 21 years, though, would sit alongside his proudest career moments.

“I’d put this right up there. The greatest thing I could achieve in rugby is winning a title for my city,” Ioane told the Herald on the eve of the final. “Even with the World Cup, although we didn’t win, if I get the privilege to play at another, I’d still put a Super Rugby title right up there. It means everything.

“We’re going to have a lot of passionate fans. My family will all be there. It’s going to be huge but we’ve got to park the emotions as much as we can.

“Even some of the great Super Rugby players don’t get the chance to play in a final, let alone win one so to be given the opportunity again – it’s something we’ve worked so hard for.”

Blues coach Vern Cotter told his squad after last week’s comfortable semifinal victory over the Brumbies they have got the experience of losing a final out of the way. He was referring to the Blues defeat in their home final to the Crusaders two years ago. Having won 15 straight games en route to that showdown, the deflating result remains a wound for many of this year’s squad now intent on rectifying their failure to finish the job.

Last year, too, the Blues saved their worst performance of the year for their humbling semifinal defeat in Christchurch.

A dejected Ioane after the defeat to the Crusaders. Photo / Photosport

While the Leon MacDonald era transformed the Blues in many ways, those finals stumbles continue to haunt a franchise that last hoisted the Super Rugby crown in 2003.

In the first season under the hard-nosed Cotter, the Blues seek to prove they are a different beast, that they have learned the hard way how to end their longing for success.

“A lot of us were part of that losing team against the Crusaders,” Ioane reflected. “Having that, being able to park that, is huge. It’s not about the emotion, it’s about getting our performance right on Saturday.

“I’ve seen teams, even this year, play with too much emotion and that can spill out. If you keep a decent balance of performance front of mind that’s when you get your best outcomes.”

That level-headed approach stretches to the sense of nostalgia surrounding older brother Akira’s final match after a decade of service for the Blues before he departs to Japan.

“It’s in the back of the mind, but if we start thinking it will happen because it’s his last game, we put the emotion at the forefront, then we trip up and it ends up being a shitty time post-match. He’s been a loyal soldier for the Blues and a beacon for all of us in those rough times. Even now, the form he’s in, there’s no other six I’d want in my team. I’m hugely proud of his growth as a man and player. We’ll look forward to Saturday night.”

Ioane always wanted to represent the Blues. As a kid he loved watching Carlos Spencer, Joe Rokocoko, Isaia Toeava and their razzle.

“That flair is what attracted me to the Blues. Those were the glory days and we’ve hopefully begun building something here now that kids want to look up to but we need something to back it up.”

There’s an irony, though, that this year’s squad is the antithesis of those predecessors. Cotter’s Blues are much more grunt than glam. Their direct, confrontational, relentless forward-led power often lacks panache but the uncompromising style could lead them to the promised land.

Don’t write off the Chiefs, though. Just as the Blues lost their final two years ago so, too, did the Chiefs last year in Hamilton. McMillan’s men must overcome major injury issues at hooker but they are collectively peaking at the prefect time.

“It’s going to be a spectacle. They’ve been simmering away when the focus has been on other teams but they’ve got All Blacks throughout their entire roster. That’s the best games to play. Man for man we back our team. That’s where we’re going to live, in those deep waters, and walk towards that pressure. That’s when the best memories are made.”

The best memories of all.