First take: Blues fortress busted

Rey Lee-Lo is tackled by George Moala during the Hurricanes' win over the Blues. Photo / Getty

Blues 5
Hurricanes 29

Sir John Kirwan's supporters on the Blues board will be cringing after the depleted Hurricanes smashed the Super Rugby basket case at their alleged fortress.

The rain came down and the Hurricanes stood up. The Blues didn't. They are missing a good few players, but this was a capitulation that went beyond the balance of the team sheets.

There are too many concerns to mention should Kirwan remain but one of them is the prospect of the region's best talent coming under the tutelage of a hapless regime.

The highlights were almost exclusively provided by the Hurricanes: standouts were a thunderous tackle by Julian Savea on Lolagi Visinia and a superb finish from Nehe Milner-Skudder, playing on the wing and giving the national selectors another nudge. The work inside him from Rey Lee-Lo was pretty special as well.

Conrad Smith wasn't actually missed in tricky conditions, and the Hurricanes put the Blues away without Ma'a Nonu having to get out of third gear either.

But something else sticks in the mind. Tj Perenara scored on halftime, when five Blues players swung to the blindside and left an extraordinary gap on the business edge of a ruck. There's an old phrase about leaving a gap so big that a bus could get through it, but there aren't many occasions when it's actually true. Perenara, who had an erratic game, couldn't miss.

So what are Kirwan's backers seeing? Considering the defections to both sides, this was a chance to glimpse into the future. It wasn't a pretty sight.