KEY POINTS:
Sorry to steal your thunder, Pat. Just an unintentional slip of the tongue when you carry so much rugby information about the scene in New Zealand."
Those might have been the words from All Black coach Graham Henry to Blues boss Pat Lam when, in discussing the merits of hooker Keven Mealamu leading the All Blacks for the first time in a test this week in Edinburgh, he seemed to suggest the hooker would be filling that leadership role for the Blues next season.
Mealamu has already been Blues skipper but he handed over those duties or at least had them reassigned to Troy Flavell as the franchise tried to discover some sort of spark in its final season under Australian David Nucifora.
Nucifora and Flavell have both gone and there is precious little leadership experience left for the Blues unless they cobble together some multi-headed group, a system which incoming coach Lam favoured at one stage of his provincial coaching career.
Men like Mealamu, Justin Collins, Ali Williams, Jerome Kaino and Tony Woodcock have the experience to pass on, it is whether they are also primed to be solitary skippers. In recent years the Blues have seemed to lean towards the formula of consensus captaincy which suggested several things.
Either they wanted to use every scrap of experience and nous they could muster during matches or they were not confident they had one player dynamic enough, and at the same time assured of selection, to do the job. But when the Blues won their last title they had one captain, Xavier Rush, and the Crusaders have also been served well by Reuben Thorne, then Richie McCaw.
Captain Kev. It has a ring to it and that will sound first for the All Blacks before any Super 14 decisions.
Mealamu got a massive endorsement from Henry this week as the coach unveiled the side to play Scotland and the hooker's smile could have lit up the Rangitoto Channel when manager Darren Shand congratulated the Otahuhu Nugget after his first practice in charge of the side.
"He has had the experience there, he is one of the leaders of the team, he has played 62 test matches, he is highly-respected by the troops, he has done it all before. But I guess if you had to single out of a small group of individuals in the All Blacks who have got the total respect of the players and who give their absolute utmost to this team, he is one of them," Henry said.
"So he is an outstanding role model, he has the experience, he has captained teams below this level, like he is captaining the Blues for next year, he has captained the Blues before, he has captained Auckland and he is one of the leaders in the All Blacks leadership group."
There are a swag of leaders in the All Black forwards this weekend. Liam Messam, Kieran Read, Anthony Boric, Jamie Mackintosh and Mealamu have all led their provinces from the pack while, in the backline, Piri Weepu has assumed that role.
