KEY POINTS:
After a decade of using "imported" coaches, the Blues are heading towards a Super 14 partnership with home-grown talent Pat Lam.
The 39-year-old Lam must be favoured to take over as coach of the franchise if, as expected, current supremo David Nucifora leaves at the end of this series to head up the high performance unit (HPU) of the Australian Rugby Union.
Nucifora has shied away from commenting on his future, preferring to steer questions towards the current programme and matches like tonight's clash with the Stormers at Eden Park.
"I have been linked with another ARU job as well for months before this," Nucifora dryly told the Herald after the tour to South Africa. "I have not advanced it all, I have left it while I have been away," he added which seemed to confirm his curiosity.
Sources close to the ARU said Nucifora had been consulted about his interest in switching to run the HPU once his contract ended this season. Nucifora has enjoyed his stint with the Blues and while he is eligible, probably senses he will never graduate to coach the All Blacks, New Zealand A or NZ Maori.
He has, apparently, indicated his interest in returning to Australia and the rugby scene there with chief executive John O'Neill making a number of sympathetic statements about Nucifora's experience and potential contribution to the coaching or administrative ranks there.
If that occurs, Lam must be top of the list to end the "foreign" coaching domination of the Blues which started after Graham Henry left to coach Wales in 1998.
Since then Jed Rowlands, Gordon Hunter, Frank Oliver, Peter Sloane and Nucifora have all been appointed as head coaches when they had made their mark outside the franchise.
Lam has worked his way through the system with Auckland, winning two provincial titles in four years, and while there have been overtures for him to be involved with the Highlanders and the Crusaders, he has stayed up north where he has been the most successful of the coaches in the region.
His assistant Shane Howarth, who is again involved with the NZ Maori side, Harbour's Wayne Pivac, Northland's Mark Anscombe and the Blues assistant coach Greg Cooper are all likely to be involved in the selection process if Nucifora leaves after this series.
Former Wallaby Pat Howard has been in charge of the HPU but his looming departure, for personal and professional reasons, sparked the interest in reclaiming Nucifora's talents to help underpin the new coaching regime of Robbie Deans..
The 46-year-old Nucifora created history by being the first Australian to coach at this level in New Zealand after winning two titles with the Brumbies. He started as the Blues technical adviser when they finished seventh and was promoted to head coach for the 2006 start of the expanded Super 14 series.
Under his tutelage the Blues finished eighth, made the semifinals last year and were sitting, uneasily, in fourth before the start of this weekend's round of matches.
Lam has coached Auckland since 2004 after returning from an assistant coaching stint in Scotland. A loose forward who captained Samoa and also played for the All Blacks during an extensive career, Lam was also chosen to coach the Pacific Island side on their 2006 tour of Europe.
PAT LAM
COACH
* 2004-07 Auckland coach (7th, winners, semifinalists, winners)
* 2006 Pacific Islands coach
