Northern Advocate
  • Northern Advocate home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Sport
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Sport
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings

Locations

  • Far North
  • Kaitaia
  • Kaikohe
  • Bay of Islands
  • Whangārei
  • Kaipara
  • Mangawhai
  • Dargaville

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Kaitaia
  • Whangārei
  • Dargaville

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Northern Advocate / Sport

SUPER 14 - When the Blues came to town

Northern Advocate
31 Mar, 2009 04:58 AM2 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.


Watching the Blues' players cavort around Kensington Park with Northland primary and secondary school students belied the seriousness of the bye week for their head coach Pat Lam.
"It's a chance for us to take stock and recover and get a few injuries out of the way and start the second
part of the season fresh," he said.
The coach said "Bluebeard Day" held yesterday gave the uninjured Blues a chance to relax and spend some time with their fans.
"It's been a good day, the boys have been taking the primary schools and the secondary schools through some expertise coaching so it's been good fun," he said.
The players get the rest of the week off but for Lam the second half of the season needs some thinking about.
"We're still in there because this year's table is a bit of a strange one and we've had a lot of bonus points but for us the most important thing is we have to improve our game."
He said the match against the Lions could take on epic proportions.
"We've got to favoured to win that but we need to win well and improve on the performances against the Warratahs and the Chiefs," he said.
Lam believes that the team has shown plenty of potential.
"We're still scoring tries, a lot of tries ... and the attitude of the boys is still good - we just need to build their confidence again by getting a win."
There is also a list of negatives that the coach will be addressing after the players reassemble in Auckland again next week. Defence will become the biggest focus in the build-up to playing the Lions at Eden Park.
"We've had to deal with a lot of frustration over the weekend that we didn't finish off with a win and that's because we're giving away soft points, if we tidy that up then that gives us a better chance," he said. "The Crusaders and the Highlanders against the Bulls, have been showing the way [with their defence] and we've done it against the Stormers, we need to step up as a group and do it again."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Save

    Share this article

Latest from Sport

Sport

Māori All Blacks beaten by Scotland

Northern Advocate

'Incredible': Northland retirees become world champs in new sport

Sport

NZ shearers prepare for Scotland's toughest sheep


Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Sport

Māori All Blacks beaten by Scotland
Sport

Māori All Blacks beaten by Scotland

Visitors bounce back after a flying start from the hosts in Whangārei.

05 Jul 05:39 AM
'Incredible': Northland retirees become world champs in new sport
Northern Advocate

'Incredible': Northland retirees become world champs in new sport

27 Jun 07:00 PM
NZ shearers prepare for Scotland's toughest sheep
Sport

NZ shearers prepare for Scotland's toughest sheep

25 Jun 10:36 PM


Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

06 Jul 09:47 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • The Northern Advocate e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Northern Advocate
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The Northern Advocate
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP