KEY POINTS:
When a bloke called Onosai Tololima Auva'a was called to arms with the Blues early in the season last year, he sent many a rugby tragic clamouring for their reference books.
Then, 21-year-old Tololima Auva'a was hardly a household name.
But by the end of the season he was one of the few Blues forwards to emerge with reputation fully intact.
A season later it looks as if Tololima Auva'a is poised to attack his second season of Super 14 with all guns blazing.
The openside loose forward was one to make a big impression in a pre-season trial against the Reds in Whangarei last night in a 40-minute, first-half cameo that produced a fistful of turnovers and a try to boot.
He was to the fore as the Blues swept past the Reds 38-9 and might be pushing hard for the No7 jersey.
"I have put on about 10kg from last season and have gained a lot of confidence playing at this level," he said last night.
"I was still pretty nervous coming out to play alongside some pretty experienced guys though, but once I got out there and playing it just felt right. It felt good."
Tololima Auva'a is not about to march into a starting guernsey very easily though.
There were numerous loose forward candidates on show for the Blues last night, double-try scorer Daniel Braid and Justin Collins right on the pace as well, and others like Andrew Blowers and Nick Williams who were on the injured roster for this match.
"I have Daniel Braid who is set up as my mentor as well as being my kind of rival I suppose, but there are four other loose forwards who could all play in my spot," said Tololima Auva'a.
"I am still in the mode of just lapping up every opportunity that comes my way. I'm still living the dream really," he said.
It has to be mentioned too, that the Reds fielded a rookie team last night, 12 of whom have yet to play a Super 14 championship game and several more whose professional resume would be only in the single digits.
The Reds were out-manoeuvred by a confident Blues side who played with enough confidence to even get a grin from coach David Nucifora, albeit qualified with a "good but we have a few areas where we have some concerns post match analysis".
On this evidence, Nucifora has a plethora of game breakers itching to go.
The Blues held a slender 10-6 halftime lead and were still threatened ahead 10-9 at the 60 minute mark, but blew out with three tries in the last 10 minutes, all of them atypical counter-attacking moves.
There wasn't much for Reds coach Eddie Jones to write home about. His largely experimental line-up has some time to spend in the laboratory yet. By the finish, the Blues were firing in almost every department.
