Rugby: Lam concedes Blues are underdogs

Blues coach Pat Lam. Photo / Brett Phibbs

The Blues' sporting trinity was Keven Mealamu, Jerome Kaino and Isaia Toeava, three men this season who bound together the best components in the side.

Since Toeava disappeared from fullback with a long-term hip injury, the Blues have lost his direction and skill and scraped past the Hurricanes before falling to three straight defeats.

It is not a performance graph to be taking to Timaru this weekend to play the Crusaders in a match which should decide New Zealand's conference winner. Coach Pat Lam concedes his side are the underdogs for this shootout.

"Rightly so," he said yesterday, "because we are playing the Crusaders on their home patch and we have been dealing with three losses. It will be a cauldron down there, it is sudden-death, there is a lot riding on this match."

He reckons the solutions have been cleaning up a number of small issues to ensure the entire squad is on the same page for Saturday's shootout. It was not public relations claptrap.

"We've had several good days, we have changed things up and in every session there seems to be a lift because of where we are heading."

The Blues will reveal their side today while the Crusaders have made four changes with Sam Whitelock, Matt Todd and Ben Franks returning to the pack and Andy Ellis resuming at halfback after a lengthy rehab from a broken thumb. Whitelock has been out even longer with ankle problems.

"It's fantastic to have big Sam Whitelock back - we've really missed him," coach Todd Blackadder said.

"I know he's really keen to get back out there and it takes the pressure off the other forwards as well. Andy Ellis goes quiet when he is injured and he's back to being noisy and enthusiastic on the training field. It's good to have his enthusiasm back and we certainly want them back in the mix as much as they want it."

After the Blues sank to their 16-11 loss to the Chiefs, Lam promised their review would sift three main areas; the game plan, performance and accountability. The first two segments have been mulled over in-house this week, the third will be revealed with the team selection. There had been early week injury concerns about Stephen Brett, Luke McAlister and Tom McCartney but all three had been passed fit for selection.

The task then was to pick the best side to arm wrestle the Crusaders.

The options are limited because of the Blues' injury list but captain Keven Mealamu will return to lead the side after his enforced rest while Charlie Faumuina is likely to be a starting prop against the Franks brothers.

The intrigue will be whether the Blues persevere with McAlister after his quiet match at first five-eighths or whether they return to the pairing of Brett and McAlister or some other arrangement.

Lam and his coaching staff had noticed a massive difference at training this week. They needed it. The Blues had put themselves in a good position in the tournament and were the only ones who could continue that progress.

They may have plateaued but they had to find the right ingredients to push on again. That had begun at training and been reinforced by authoritative words from the players in their briefings.

Down south the messages have been about raising their game to overhaul the Blues. After this week, the Crusaders travel to play the Hurricanes and the Blues host the Highlanders in the final round.