KEY POINTS:
The race for the next Blues coach is surely one with two horses only, and one of those horses is ahead in the home straight.
There is no need for the Blues, or more particularly the New Zealand Rugby Union, to look outside the region again with two highly qualified candidates working in the area.
Pat Lam and Wayne Pivac have both tasted success at NPC level with Auckland and have coached overseas at Scotland and Fiji respectively.
Lam appears to have the inside running and his partnership with Shane Howarth would leave no room for Greg Cooper.
Even if Lam somehow misses the job (you never know with the Blues) it is likely the big broom will come out because I can't see Andy Dalton, the chief executive, wanting to keep Cooper up there. The Blues backs have not been up to any standard at all and the way they have been flopped around positionally indicates a certain amount of guesswork on the coaches' part.
There is a lot of talent in that franchise but it is a long time since we've seen it consistently delivered on the park.
The Blues will not be an overnight fix. They will need time to get their confidence back. They have some issues in key positions in the backs and their link man, Daniel Braid, is not the player he once was.
On the other hand some of their players were magnificent on Friday night against the Reds, most particularly Jerome Kaino, who played with more vigour and aggression than he has for a long time. It's up to him now to start producing that every week, rather than every so often.
Down south, the Crusaders won in vastly different conditions to those the Blues found in Brisbane. I knew it was going to be grim when my plane landed in Christchurch and it was sleeting. I headed for the hills and by the time I got home it was snowing. With that in mind it was no wonder the Crusaders were functional rather than spectacular in beating a Sharks side that needed the win more than the home team did.
Halfback Andy Ellis deserves a rap for his performance. He had a lot of work to do and he did it effectively and with the minimum of fuss.
Guys like Ellis and Brendon Leonard are best described as industrious, especially when compared with a player like Piri Weepu, who can be on fire one minute and stone cold the next.
Ellis' was an 80-minute performance and the All Blacks need to start picking players who can play consistently for the whole match rather than being preoccupied by impact players.
The other aspect of Friday night's match is the confirmation that the Crusaders have the best two locks in the country in Ali Williams and Brad Thorn. I would rate the Chiefs duo, Kevin O'Neill and Toby Lynn, as the next best but they are a little too fresh to come into serious All Black consideration.
Thorn is tipped to win an All Black jersey this year and it is no surprise: he's big, strong and aggressive and in the modern game that's all you need to be.
