KEY POINTS:
People may be hoping that Auckland's disastrous Air New Zealand Cup campaign will be forgotten when the mighty Blues start their Super 14 programme.
Having played for both teams, I hope that's how it will be, but I am not confident this will be the case.
The optimism stems from the fact the Blues will have some senior players back and that the overall strength of the franchise will come out in combination - even though Auckland, North Harbour and Northland fared poorly in the Air NZ Cup, not making the play-offs.
But the big issues for me right now are vision and leadership in Auckland rugby. Or, rather the lack of it in Auckland rugby right now.
John Drake wrote a column in the New Zealand Herald recently which looked at Auckland's player losses, a lack of coaching structure, the drop in basic skills like catching and passing and the need for a long-term plan to get out of the mire.
I agree and I'd go a bit further. Auckland is a vast rugby nursery, the biggest in the land and, if Auckland is not strong, then this will sooner or later have an impact on the strength of New Zealand rugby.
I know that I am 20,000 kilometres away but I can see some things happening. I see that leadership and vision are lacking in Auckland. The Blues coaches are young and inexperienced. So too are the players.
Where are they to get this vision and leadership from?
When Auckland rugby was at its strongest, it had senior coaches like John Hart and Graham Henry who planned for the future. They identified, developed and selected players who had what it takes and gave them responsibility.
Those coaches forged a path to the top and those players often went with them.
Let me illustrate further by telling you a little bit about the English rugby right now.
The English rugby ship has taken a pounding over the last few years. It won't right itself overnight ... these things take time.
But I believe they have made the right start in bringing in Martin Johnson to lead - and he is most certainly calling the shots. I believe that a team of leaders will nearly always win on the rugby field but sometimes you need a ruthless dictator to get them thinking and performing to their best.
The will to win is paramount and nothing else should come into it.
Being the fittest, most ruthless and doing the basics better than the opposition is the only thing that will change the fortunes for England and Auckland.
In 1992, Laurie Mains took the helm of a battered NZ rugby ship. He stripped the All Blacks back to the bone. No-one was special. No one was above what he was telling us to do. We did what we were told to do and took no prisoners.
He was a dictator in those early days and only when he saw us developing as leaders did he start to hand over power.
Rugby is a simple game but we need mentally and physically hard men who have the attitude that winning is everything.
I'm concerned that we are lacking that in All Black rugby and I am sure we are missing it in Auckland.
Maybe we should follow the lead of England and put a dictator at the helm to get things back to where we all want them to be.
