Hurricanes Round 14 demolition of the Blues at Eden Park — a 47-26 result that flattered the home side in the final ten minutes — has triggered the most direct admission yet from Blues head coach Vern Cotter that his team is the architect of its own problems, with DSPN's Jamie Wall calling the third-placed Auckland franchise 'kind of pretenders, really'.
Wall, broadcasting from Eden Park for DSPN's post-match show, summed up the wreckage bluntly. "Full time here at Eden Park, 47 to 26 to the Hurricanes. And I'd have to say that's a score line that really flattered the Blues in the end. A couple of garbage-time tries made it a little bit more palatable for their fans," he said.
He contrasted the Hurricanes' control through the middle thirds with a Blues attack that simply could not string phases together. "The Hurricanes managed to get their phase count up into double digits three times by my count. The Blues didn't even do it at all throughout the whole game. The Hurricanes ran out to a 21-nil lead at halftime and even that probably should have been more," Wall said.
Cotter, who came out of the home dressing room to face the media moments later, did not attempt to spin the contest. He pointed to a stark three-and-three swing inside the opening half-hour as the defining stretch.
"We came in at halftime — they had three entries and we gave it to them basically and they scored three times. We had three entries and got penalised, I think, once or twice, and we didn't convert," Cotter said. "So that was really the difference."
The Blues coach defended the spirit of his squad while accepting the structural failure. "We were contesting. We were present around the breakdown. There was good character and I think the character you saw later on when we scored those points. But we just needed to be able to hold the ball in those critical moments. And you get those swings against a team like that — from a lost possession to 10-7 and then 14 points. So it's frustrating for the players, frustrating for us."
Wall agreed that the moments turned faster than the scoreline could keep up with. "Hurricanes ability to hang on to the ball and the Blues' complete inability to do the same thing," he said, framing it as the story of the game. He singled out the work of replacement halfback Ariana Enari, who set up three Hurricanes tries: "Ariana Enari — a lot of talk about him coming in after Cam Roigard's injury. He really stepped up tonight. He really, really did."
Fineanganofo's 15th try of the season equalled the Super Rugby single-season try-scoring record, although Wall flagged the build-up pass as a potential forward. "Maybe a little bit of a question mark over the pass that led to Fineanganofo's try — that was 15th of the season. They had a big sort of marginal forward pass. Be interesting to see that one on the way," he said.
The wider read from Wall was that the Blues' top-three perch is now a misleading data point. "This is just kind of says a lot about the Hurricanes — where they're at at the moment. But it also kind of shows the Blues are just kind of pretenders, really. They've been sitting up in the top three — I think they're third coming into this one. And it just kind of shows that maybe they just don't really belong there," he said.
Cotter was asked about the comeback mentality despite the 21-point halftime hole. "We believed it, because we'd given it to them. They're a good team and they compete everywhere. They compete lineouts, breakdowns, wide. They compete in the air. And that's one of their strengths. I thought we had them under pressure at certain times and moments," he replied. "We had three HIAs — it was one of those tough evenings at the office."
The defeat keeps the Hurricanes on a collision course with the Chiefs at the top of the ladder, while the Blues will need to find an answer fast with the playoffs three weeks away.
