Nicolas Sanchez of the Jaguares celebrates the victory over the Blues. Photo / Getty
Nicolas Sanchez of the Jaguares celebrates the victory over the Blues. Photo / Getty
Rugby was not the winner at Eden Park. And nor were the Blues, turning a bad season into a horror season and making everyone wonder how on earth things could get any worse.
Maybe they can, but goodness only knows how. Losing to the Jaguares at home is surely as bad as it gets?
The Jaguares…no one loses to them, and this really must have to rank as one of the most miserable nights in what is now a quite miserable recent history for the Blues.
A virtually empty stadium watching a broken team in appalling conditions crushed in almost every aspect by the relative newcomers from Argentina. What a sad, sad night for a club that once ruled Super Rugby with a pomp and swagger. What a sad, sad night for a club that was once feared and revered in equal measure.
And it wasn't just the fact they lost either, it was the way they lost. They so meekly drifted out of the contest in the second 40 minutes. They were in charge at the break and then nothing. They came back out so limp and insipid; so lifeless and one dimensional.
Jordan Hyland of the Blues looks on after the defeat. Photo / Photosport
It would be unfair to say the players don't care, but they do seem to have an inability to overtly display their passion.
They were never eager to get their hands on the ball. They had so little urgency or dynamism as if they were just killing time, waiting for the Jaguares to do what just about every other side has done to them this year and cruise past them in the final quarter.
Their scrum was a lost cause entirely. The Jaguares clearly didn't respect it or rate it and they went about destroying it with a touch of disdain.
They would have been happy scrummaging all night and pretty much chose to do so, having several periods when they opted for repeat penalty scrums such was the pressure they had the Blues under.
That was hard to watch – a New Zealand side being so dominated like that. The Jaguares also got their rolling maul working and again, this was another area where it was man versus boys.
Joaquin Tuculet of the Jaguares makes a break. Photo / Photosport
The Blues can only be thankful that while the Jaguares were good at building the momentum and steering their driving maul close to the tryline, they weren't so good at closing out and actually scoring from it.
If they had been, the score would have been even uglier. The sense of disaster and hopelessness even greater. Which is unbelievable as the doom and gloom hanging over the club is considerable.
How they find a way out of the mess they are in is becoming an increasingly impossible question to answer.
There are so many problems to fix it feels like no one has a clue where to start. Losing to the Jaguares has intensified all the concerns and worries about the club, the city and the role of rugby within it.
No one will be able to stomach too many more nights like this and be willing to keep turning up at Eden Park.
Worse, so few kids in Auckland will be willing to pick up a rugby ball and give it a go if they see to many more performances like this.
Jaguares 20 (A. Creevy, E. Boffelli, T. Lezana tries; N. Sanchez con, pen) Blues 13 (T. Manu, M. Duffie tries; S. Perofeta pen)
