Rugby: Blues coach must cure travel sickness

Reporter·NZ Herald·

10 May, 2015 05:00 PM4 mins to read

The Rebels celebrate after scoring a try in a match at Melbourne's AAMI Park where the Blues once again failed to dig deep away from home. Photo / Getty Images

Next season's coach needs to make Blues believe they can win when it gets tough.

Whoever coaches the Blues next year, and the signs remain promising for John Kirwan, one of the challenges they face will be changing the mentality of the players.

They appear too ready to concede defeat if things get a bit difficult and nowhere is that more apparent than when they are on the road.

The Blues' 42-22 defeat to the Rebels in Melbourne on Friday was their last chance to win away from home this season. They were always going to be up against it without Jerome Kaino, Patrick Tuipulotu and Charles Piutau, but despite being well in the game in the first half, the slide to another loss was unsurprising.

The problem for the players is that they are stuck in a rut of their own making and no one at the franchise appears to know how to get them out.

Compounding matters is the lack of expectation when they board the plane or bus as opposed to when they take the field at Eden Park.

They have the players and talent to be where the Rebels and Lions are now - modest teams still in the hunt for a playoff spot - yet for whatever reason the attitude checks out as soon as they reach check-in.

Their remaining four games of the season are at their fortress and, with the opposition comprising the Bulls, Hurricanes, Crusaders and Highlanders, the Blues can yet play an important role in dictating the final play-off places despite not being in contention themselves.

Their only two victories of the season have come at their only games at Eden Park - against the Brumbies and Force - and it wouldn't surprise if the Blues win three of their remaining four.

It must have been one of the things mentioned by Kirwan to the board last week when he submitted his audacious plan for next year and beyond, and while he was reluctant to go into detail over the weekend, he did concede the meeting was one of the most important in his life.

"I had to present where we were and what we need to do to continue to turn the club around," he told Newstalk ZB.

"I faced up to where I think my deficiencies are and where I need to improve those and where we actually are with the club and where we need to go. It was a huge meeting.

"I went through the process of the things that are important to me - selection, staff mix and the things I need to do. We have got some [coaching] personnel leaving.

"What I tried to do was to identify what we need to do - including coaching staff.

"To understand what you need to do to turn things around, we need to understand what our deficiencies are and where our strengths are."

One of Kirwan's first moves will be to try to sign Tabai Matson from the Crusaders as an assistant, meaning two of the four coaching positions will likely be filled without going to open market. The two others, defence and skills, probably will be.

That determination to stick with the status quo will be a hard one to sell, but Kirwan himself could point to the improvements Highlanders coach Jamie Joseph has made.

The Highlanders went from basket cases in 2013, to securing the sixth and last playoff place last year, and are on their way to a similar result in 2015, thanks mostly to the way Joseph is managing his players.

Kirwan admitted he had made mistakes - understood to include recruitment and retention - but he has promised to learn from them.