RUGBY - Time to reflect - Justin and Bronson

The Blues' Super 14 rugby campaign came to a sudden halt yesterday, despite the team registering a meritorious victory over the Hurricanes on Friday. The game at Eden Park was significant for two Northlanders, but for two completely different reasons. For Justin Collins it was his last trot for the Blues, but Bronson Murray was left waiting for his first.
• JUSTIN COLLINS
Justin Collins pauses for a moment. For the first time in a long time, he can.
But when he finally talks, it is, as always, definitely worth listening. Having just played the last game of the Blues campaign on Friday night, the 33-year-old loose forward was finally able to get a bit nostalgic. Unless hell freezes over, or the money is exceptional, Collins' Super 14 rugby career is over.
After 98 games of "Super Rugby", Collins is stepping off the merry-go-round.
"Highs and lows, that's what Blues rugby has been like right from the time I have been included," Collins said.
"There was probably one year that it wasn't a roller coaster, and that was the year we won it. We only lost one game and we applied ourselves real well.
"I would have to put that down to Graham Henry's influence, I think that made a lot of difference for us," Collins said.
It has been quite a journey for Collins, who launched his professional rugby career when he was called into the Chiefs for a few cameos. He became the rock-steady reliable loose forward option at the Blues shortly after.
Having survived four different coaching regimes, competition expansions and various franchise upheavals, he is now one of the most respected players in the country. But the calm, no-nonsense Collins has always been the exception to the rule in a Blues team laden with hair-dyed, shaved-legged, headline-grabbing players.
So how did the boy from Kamo cope with the pressure of performing, not only alongside those flashy Aucklanders but in front of them? Now he has crossed the finish line, it must be quite satisfying.
"Right from the start, right from the first game of the competition it was `this is my last season and this is quite possibly my last game'" Collins said.
"That has pretty much been how I have played all my rugby at the Blues, to be honest."
He added: "When I first started, I started playing with some huge legends of New Zealand rugby, and all the way through, there has been a lot of players of similar calibre. To do that is really satisfying," he said.
"But then that word frustration comes in each year. I get annoyed (that) we could not apply ourselves, not just this year but in a lot of years. The Blues have always had an outstanding team on paper, and are always touted to be finalists, but often we didn't reach the mark."
And why might that be, then? "Yeah, I do have an idea as to why, but I probably can't tell you - I don't want to say it," he said.
Collins is looking forward to waking up at the family holiday spot at a Far North beach next summer knowing the pressure is off. No sadistic pre-season fitness regime will be looming.
"I won't miss that. I have got thoughts of not doing any exercise for a while and from what I have heard from ex-players they reckon you go a year to 18 months of not doing anything then you start to blow out a bit and you think, `shit I had better get into it here because I'm not looking or feeling too flash'."
• BRONSON MURRAY
When Bronson Murray was confirmed as a fully fledged Blues Super 14 rugby player way back in November last year, the friendly-faced prop forward summed up all the fuss at the team launch in Auckland with this line: "I just want to get into it now."
Six months later the 117kg tighthead prop is still waiting for the chance.
Murray never once got to lace up his boots in anger in the starting team and has finished the Blues campaign with just one five-minute burst off the bench to his credit.
You might say he is a bit frustrated but then that would be like saying water is a bit wet.
"It has been pretty hard sitting on the bench and not getting on, but I think I have learned quite a bit since I have been down here," Murray said, as diplomatically as he could.
Murray was always expected to play second fiddle to John Afoa, especially as Afoa is pushing for an All Blacks recall and already has more than 50 games for the Blues under his belt.
What nobody expected was for Afoa to start every game this season. The Blues are the only side in the competition to play the same front row trio in every game of the championship. Tony Woodcock, Keven Mealamu and Afoa started every game of the campaign.
That left Murray on the outer, unable to test his skills against some big-name opponents in the Super 14, and a battered starting pack to shoulder a huge workload.
Now Murray is anxious to get back to Whangarei where he will link up with the Hikurangi club and start preparing for the Northland representative campaign starting in July. There is no doubt that Murray will be a key member of the Northland team. Chances are the roles will be reversed.
Murray will be the incumbent likely to start every game of the Northland season.
Murray will probably feel for the man on the bench though, because there were times during the Blues campaign that he admits it was hard not to get a bit downcast about his prospects.
"They (the Blues coaches) have explained stuff but definitely I want to just get out there. I have done all this training and I am just sitting waiting to go," Murray said.
"Now I just want to play some rugby. I will be just keen to get out there and I suppose use some of this training that I have done so much of. It is quite a bit (of training). Every day we train, and it does tally up.
"I suppose our (Blues) games never went our way and a lot of them went to the last minute, so the opportunity to change and go on never really happened.
"But it was pretty frustrating getting up to those last minutes and know that you are not going to get on."