Aaron Cruden is still a likely starter in the All Blacks' series against England despite being named on the bench in his return for the Chiefs.

All Black coach Steve Hansen has put the form struggles of Blues' loose forward Steven Luatua down to poor fitness.

John Kirwan is advocating the return of transfer fees so Auckland and the Blues do not continue to be castigated for losing players they may have helped develop.

As the twists and turns in the New Zealand Super Rugby conference continue, the best players have been forced to put aside their differences for an All Black training camp.

After a four-year hiatus, the familiar scarlet jersey of the New Zealand Barbarians returns for two relatively high-profile games next month.

The Hurricanes have their backs against the wall and they know it.

The Blues, in desperate need of competition points to keep their slim chance of a play-off place alive, will probably be wishing for a venue change on Friday.

If Hurricanes coach Mark Hammett watched the Crusaders go down to a short-handed Sharks side, he may have cracked a wry smile as the final whistle blew.

Todd Blackadder was at a loss over how the Crusaders failed to beat the Sharks in Christchurch.

After two and a half years of hard work at the Chiefs, Aaron Cruden has made the most of the down time his broken thumb has presented.

The Stormers ran out of steam towards the end but did enough earlier on to run out convincing 24-8 victors over the Western Force in a Super Rugby clash at Newlands.

Of all the things it's easy to imagine the 1.98m, 120kg Patrick Tuipulotu being, scared is not one of them.

The Blues future is easy enough to predict with five games of this campaign left.

A couple of things will have become clearer for the All Blacks coaches after the Highlanders' defeat of the Hurricanes - not least the fact they will be feeling pretty good about Malakai Fekitoa.

The Blues probably lack a genuine team culture and departing Hurricanes coach Mark Hammett failed to understand the region he represented, according to Massey rugby researcher Jeremy Hapeta.

An academic has lifted the lid on how the Chiefs have won Super Rugby titles, highlighting the use of Maori cultural themes and responsibility to the community.

If the recent defeat to the Chiefs marked the death knell for the Blues' season, the haemorrhaging started last year.

The Hurricanes may have to start relying on more than themselves if they want to make the Super Rugby playoffs.

Watch a replay of tonight's Super Rugby blog from the match between the Hurricanes and the Highlanders from Westpac Stadium in Wellington.