Blues v Force
Eden Park, 5.30pm today
It is only mid-April and the Blues are playing sudden-death football.
One more slip-up, one more wretched skate like their loss last round to the Stormers and the Blues know their slim chance of making the Super 14 playoffs will be toast - again.
They have five games left to make an extraordinary claim for the finals, one they need to begin tonight at Eden Park with victory against the Force.
A few weeks back that might have been a given, even with the erratic progress from the Blues. The Force were battling a massive injury list and had to haul in a variety of players new to rugby at this level.
However, in recent rounds they have discovered some pep, won successive matches and reclaimed players of pedigree like David Pocock, Richard Brown and Cameron Shepherd from the casualty ward.
With those victories has come confidence, a new wave of belief about their ability to compete with teams with greater reputations and sides like the Blues who may be taut tonight because of their perilous position.
This game done, the Blues board a plane for the long-haul flight to South Africa and captain Keven Mealamu has warned his teammates he does not want to take his boarding pass with an L in his luggage.
He has got his test mates Tony Woodcock and John Afoa back alongside him in the front row after several weeks' injury absence but has lost the aerial clout and nous of Anthony Boric from the second row.
If the Blues national front row gets their game sorted and there are enough scrums, they will hope to damage the Force scrum, although that may be just a hope as their reputations have not matched their impact this season.
Coach Pat Lam has gone for more size from Tom Chamberlain on the openside where he hopes the rookie will also produce some extra spark. For eight games Serge Lilo has been very consistent in his work without perhaps the moments of loose forward inspiration to light up a match.
Centre Rene Ranger has delivered that illumination and errors in equal doses and curiously Lam has benched him to use the steady Benson Stanley in an unfamiliar position. It may be the coach is banking on Stanley taking the sting out of the Force's midfield attack before he unleashes Ranger.
Whatever the reasons and theory, the Blues know one thing. Victory is non-negotiable, just as it is the week after and the week after ... if they are to complete a claim for the semifinals.
The Force have no such worries, only the weight of expectation and coaching scrutiny after upping their game recently. They can scrap with the best and they have found a new tread to their style.
BLUES v FORCE
Blues
Isaia Toeava
Joe Rokocoko
Benson Stanley
Luke McAlister
Rudi Wulf
Stephen Brett
Alby Mathewson
Viliame Ma'afu
Tom Chamberlain
Jerome Kaino
Filo Paulo
Kurtis Haiu
John Afoa
Keven Mealamu (c)
Tony Woodcock
Force
James O'Connor
C. Shepherd
Mitch Inman
Ryan Cross
M. Bartholomeusz
David Hill
Chris O'Young
Richard Brown
David Pocock
Matt Hodgson
Nathan Sharpe (c)
Tom Hockings
Tim Fairbrother
Nathan Charles
Nic Henderson
Blues Reserves: T McCartney, T Mailau, A van der Heijden, P Saili,
C Smylie, R Ranger, P Williams.
Force Reserves: B Whittaker, M Dunning, B McCalman, S Wykes, J Turner, S Harris, N Cummins.
