Brothers at arms length

It's usually a rugby league refrain: mate against mate. At Jade Stadium last night, it was brother against brother and Mika against mates.

The brotherly halfbacks, John (Blues) and Kevin (Crusaders) Senio, had a battle royal to find out who was the senior Senio, while big Bradley Mika started like a runaway train in a clever piece of selection to pit the big Aucklander against his mates from the Northern franchise.

Both Senios won some battles and lost others. Kevin has, perhaps (there isn't much in it), the snappier pass. His delivery off the left hand is a bullet of a thing and he fires it off without having to take three or four steps running towards the first-five, like so many modern halfbacks.

When you have a player like Dan Carter on the outer reaches of a pass like that, it gives a backline valuable time and was one of the reasons Leon MacDonald created such havoc.

However, maybe Kevin Senio hasn't yet expanded his brief All Black career because he lacks a little, just a little, in terms of darts round the rucks, mauls and scrums.

Younger brother John also has a fine pass and is gathering confidence fast. However, he has maybe a little more devil in him round the rucks and mauls and some of his little dips and dabs worked in well with the big Auckland forwards.

The Blues did far better at muscling the ball up over the gain line so it was pretty much honours even for the Senio siblings.

Mika had a busy first half. He was brought in to give the Blues some of their own medicine - big blokes bruising it up the middle and rampaging out in the backline. The Blues defence was working well last night and they seemed to absorb Mika's thrusts for the most part - and he was replaced by Johnny Leo'o after 48 minutes, with Reuben Thorne moving into lock.

Eventually John Senio, limping from a knock, went off with 25m to go, replaced by Junior Poluleuigaga.

So a points victory to the senior Senio (older brother Kevin) but the promise of some fascinating brotherly battles to come.

-HERALD ON SUNDAY