Rivals Blues, Chiefs seeking last hurrah

Saimone Taumoepeau, here being tackled by the Stormers' Jean de Villiers, gets his solitary start for the Blues tomorrow. Picture / Reuters

Part of coach David Nucifora's Super 14 lament yesterday was about unearthing players to deal with the rigours of a four-month campaign.

That complaint and many others, will be covered during next week's review into the underachieving Blues, but for now Nucifora wants his team to ignite for one match.

One final hurrah in a mediocre season, a win tomorrow at Eden Park against neighbouring rivals the Chiefs, would do just fine.

The Blues are jammed in mid table with the Chiefs and Highlanders with the unwanted status as worst New Zealand side on the line this weekend.

"This game takes on special significance," Nucifora acknowledged as he announced his final selection.

Similar sentiments came from the other side of the Bombay Hills and his Chiefs counterpart Ian Foster.

"This last game is an opportunity not only to end the season well, but to really build on our performances of the past six weeks," he said.

The Blues have recalled senior lock Ali Williams and halfback John Senio for Anthony Boric and Junior Poluleiuligaga while Saimone Taumoepeau comes in for the injured prop Tony Woodcock.

The solitary change in the Chiefs comes at tighthead prop where Ben Castle remains in place of Nathan White who damaged his knee during last week's win against the Waratahs.

This game will be Taumoepeau's solitary start this season, which seems a waste of someone good enough to be part of last year's Grand Slam tour.

Nucifora did not buy into the philosophy, peddled by All Black coach Graham Henry, that player rotation was the answer or avenue to better long-term results and quality of play. "In a perfect world that would be nice but we did not start as well as we would have liked and we had points-table pressure on us to get wins," he said.

The Blues had also suffered from a "horrendous" injury toll this season with Woodcock, Anthony Tuitavake, Daniel Braid, Troy Flavell and Steve Devine unavailable for this match.

Nucifora said there was no magic fix, just long-term strategies and suggested any pressure he was facing had been stirred up by the media. "I have no issues with the job I have done but obviously we have not finished where we would like to." Tomorrow was an opportunity for amends.

There had been huge disappointment losing Flavell and Rua Tipoki on the eve of the trip to South Africa and then the two defeats in the republic.

Had those not occurred, Nucifora said, his side would be shooting for a semifinal berth tomorrow. Instead they must find their first win in three years against the Chiefs to avoid further embarrassment.