Rugby: Blues coach sticks with tried-and-true

Pat Lam. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Blues coach Pat Lam believes he will recruit only a few players next season to reinforce his maturing Super 14 squad.

"Half a dozen at the most," was his initial reaction about his playing roster changes for 2011.

The Blues were settled, they were maturing, most had added another season's experience and all those factors gave him confidence about the next campaign.

He compared progress to his time coaching Auckland when they struggled in his first season before going undefeated through the 2007 season. After this season's Super 14 he was confident there would be more improvement next year.

Lam and his staff are gathering information for their reviews in the next month, as well as preparing plans for what they hope will be their reappointment and then team selection in October. That process will be helped by a change to direct franchise contracting.

That, said Lam, would put New Zealand sides on a similar level to the Australians and South Africans and he hoped would mirror some of the repeated excellence the Crusaders had displayed in the Super series.

Openside flanker Daniel Braid would be an invaluable asset for Auckland and the Blues after his two-year stint in Queensland but Lam was coy about targeting any other offshore players.

He was rapt at the efforts from new recruits halfback Alby Mathewson and five-eighths Stephen Brett and confident Brett would emulate Mathewson and sign on again for another stint with the Blues.

"He is just going to get better I think," Lam said of his backline director.

"The real key, I think, is both he and Alby playing each week. I think the settling into the environment was the easy part - the boys welcomed him in - but the other side was getting used to the style of play, getting used to running the cutter week in week out and I am expecting bigger things from both of them next year.

"We are very comfortable with what he [Brett] is doing and I think the improvement in games that he can make and what he is already doing is quite huge."

The key to improvement with the Blues was experience. They had lost some close games but more mature players might have ridden out those crises.

Making decisions under pressure was crucial and that was why Lam fought hard behind the scenes to get Braid back, and had several others in his sights.

The tight five were experienced and Ali Williams' return to full health after his repeat Achilles tendon surgery would be monitored optimistically. Viliame Ma'afu would be missed atNo 8 so some backup was needed there.

The Blues had improved this season but been inconsistent. Their losing margins had not been significant and had they converted one of those to victory they might have been in the playoffs.

Lam said his message to the Blues and the New Zealand Rugby Union appointments committee was to evaluate all the unseen advances the group had made.

"The unseen is the foundation we have put in place."

Lam said the players had enjoyed the environment, they had finished the series with the most tries and made 30 more line breaks than the next-best attacking side.