COMMENT
The Blues keep rolling along, doing enough to paper over their cracks, and No 8 Akira Ioane is an unmistakable figure in the middle of it all.
Bouncing defenders away, powering ahead from the back of scrums, holding up opponents to win turnovers ... and getting in arguments.
Ioane is impossible to miss, easy to love, a big man who runs very upright, swatting off defenders.
Highly respected Blues forwards coach Tom Coventry is certainly promoting the No 8's All
Blacks credentials.
The All Blacks selectors will be excited about the potential, without a doubt, because he represents the sort of advantages which keep New Zealand at the top of world rugby.
But one of the other things which has kept the All Blacks (and Crusaders) at the top is remaining calm under pressure, staying focused on the job at hand, your job, especially when the chips are down and the scoreboard is making the heart flutter.
The try to beat Ireland in 2013 epitomised that, as did Richie McCaw, the man at the centre of a long period of All Blacks dominance.
Players such as McCaw, Kieran Read and Jerome Kaino always kept hammering away under pressure. McCaw was the pied piper for this attitude, pouring all his energy into things that mattered.
That's the area of concern about Akira Ioane.
On one hand, I love the emotion coming out of the Blues. They are probably more expressive than any New Zealand team in Super Rugby history.
The Ioane brothers in particular are very conscious of the crowd — not that the gatherings at Eden Park are big enough to really qualify as a crowd these days.
But Akira Ioane, in my opinion, is too easily distracted, too easily attracted to unnecessary conflict.
He looks for arguments, and there was more argy-bargy at the end of the Waratahs game on Saturday night.
The All Blacks could definitely do with Ioane's size and power in the No8 jersey because for all his gusto, the versatile Ardie Savea — who filled in impressively for Kieran Read — is lightweight by test standards.
But Ioane's intensity and accuracy under pressure are also questionable. And there are no real opportunities to test his test temperament before the World Cup.
That's the conundrum for the All Blacks selectors. Imagine if he was hurled into a World Cup final right now.
He could be a match winner, or he could stuff it up. And those are not the sort of odds the All Blacks like to play with, although they must be sorely tempted.
Blues captain Patrick Tuipulotu was brilliant after the Blues victory over the Waratahs.
"Plenty to work on" is a cliche, but the way he said it ... he clearly meant it. Tuipulotu didn't seem particularly satisfied at all. The Blues are well short of Crusaders level, and chief among the concerns should be their lineout.
The Warriors' victory over the Gold Coast Titans was one of the most important in their history. Another loss after two horrible performances would have been a disaster.
But the Titans attack was awful and the one man capable of creating something, enigmatic forward Bryce Cartwright, did little more than roll the dice now and then.
Local product Chanel Harris-Tavita showed a lot of running spark in the Warriors halves, taking over from dour Aussie recruit Adam Keighran.
Twenty-year-old Harris-Tavita had the confidence to back his strengths on debut, even if it didn't always work out. There were promising signs, and the Warriors are a club which must always pursue the flamboyant option.
But the Warriors squad isn't near good enough to overcome a season in which they will have a rookie playmaker complementing the fantastic Blake Green.
The best Warriors fans can hope for is another year of rapid-fire ups and downs, like most of 2018.
They won't go close to making the top eight.
As for Green, he might be the single most important player for any club in the competition.
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