With John Kirwan about to rest All Black and Blues captain Jerome Kaino, Steven Luatua will today be named at No8 to take on the Crusaders.

Benji Marshall says his short stint playing for the Blues made him a better league player.

After spending the season in the shadow of his younger brother, Marty McKenzie has earned the opening opportunity to fill Aaron Cruden's boots.

Milestone man Pek Cowan hopes the Western Force will break their eight-match losing streak when they play the Chiefs in Hamilton.

One person who might have mixed feelings after Aaron Cruden’s World Cup dream was almost certainly ended by a knee injury is Charles Piutau.

Luck has completely deserted the Reds this season but captain James Slipper senses their fortunes may have finally turned.

Tell me if you've heard this before: Richie McCaw is looking old, the Crusaders are on the wane, Dan Carter is a shadow of his former self?

Four years after suffering heartbreak at the final hurdle, Aaron Cruden's World Cup hopes have been dashed in equally unfortunate circumstances.

Every team has played at least eight games this season, which means we are at - or past - the halfway point of the 2015 Super Rugby campaign.

Aaron Cruden's season-ending injury is a dreadful blow for his ambitions, but we can appreciate the depth of our five-eighths talent, writes Wynn Gray.

In sporting circles and rugby conversation, failure has become the accepted outcome for the Blues and they stayed true to that course against the Highlanders, writes Wynne Gray.

This week will start with a different feeling for the Hurricanes.

Richie McCaw knows he's playing short of his peak - and the statistics support that assertion.

All Blacks captain Richie McCaw has admitted he is struggling to recapture his world-class form in the first half of this year's Super Rugby season.

Step up Damian McKenzie. The question has always been when, not if, he'd be an All Black and given events of recent months, the answer might be 2016.

For the first three years of Dave Rennie's reign at the Chiefs, clashes with the Crusaders conformed to a certain pattern.

A dire opening half killed the Blues' season once and for all in Dunedin tonight.

Join us here for tonight's live blog of the Super Rugby clash between the Highlanders and the Blues.

Their most recent outing against the Stormers two weeks ago produced a 25-20 victory but there was collateral damage.

Jimmy Cowan is going back to his roots - back to Dunedin to face the team he played for more than 100 times, a team he freely admits are much better now.

The Chiefs easily recovered from the first-half loss of Aaron Cruden to secure a memorable double over the Crusaders in Christchurch tonight.