Seasoned Mealamu may lead Blues

Dealing with issues is nothing new for Blues coach David Nucifora.

He has inherited a sackful of selection dilemmas and questions about his choice of captain for his first season in charge of the Blues and the inaugural year of the Super 14 series.

There are no guarantees provincial skippers Rua Tipoki and Justin Collins will make the starting XV or even the squad and Nucifora may have to use a senior player like Keven Mealamu as his skipper.

With fellow All Black hooker Derren Witcombe injured and out of the Super 14, Mealamu will be one of the more experienced players available to his coach. Nucifora has mentioned a leadership pool but will also need to nominate a captain for some perfunctory duties and Mealamu probably heads a possibles list of Steve Devine and Collins.

Auckland's winning form in the NPC, North Harbour's improvement to make the playoffs and the wildcard All Black choice of Isaia Toeava have given Nucifora other headaches.

As required, he sent his list of 24 protected players to the NZ Rugby Union on Tuesday with the extra four to be sorted from the draft pool at today's meeting in Wellington of all the franchise coaches and chief executives.

The sifting of talent and balancing his squad have been a tough Blues introduction for Nucifora, who was dumped as Brumbies coach during their Super 12 title-winning season last year.

Nucifora hitched his talents to Auckland and the Blues. After one year as technical adviser, he was promoted to replace Peter Sloane.

As Nucifora scanned the work of franchise provinces Auckland, Harbour and Northland, he learned that former All Blacks Troy Flavell and Andrew Blowers had returned to the selection pool and that Witcombe would be missing.

Witcombe's absence will probably mean selection for Tim Dow as Northland's solitary choice while Flavell, as signalled by Nucifora, is a certainty and probably at lock.

After some whispers that Toeava and lock Greg Rawlinson would be "sent" to the Hurricanes, it appears the teenager and the lock have made the Blues list of protected players.

That decision will place midfielders like Tipoki, Sam Tuitupou and Ben Atiga at most risk in today's Super 14 haggling over those available in the pool.

Nucifora has stated yet again his belief that the Blues should have been allowed to protect their entire squad, and he wonders if 28 players will be enough to get through the Super 14 season.

"The injury rates have gone up with the way the game is being played and everyone's using over 30 players, yet we're going into a Super 14 with 28."

Pool players have been told to be in phone contact today in case they are released to the draft and have to shift home for six months. "We have to get this right because we can't keep everyone and we are going to lose a few," said Nucifora.

Utility lock/loose forwards Bradley Mika and Kurtis Haui may be two players who become available to other franchises in the draft, and nifty Harbour wing Viliame Waqaseduadua may also be a top pool pick because of the Blues' wing riches.

One player who won't be in the Blues is loose forward Jerome Kaino, who last night was ruled out of the Super 14 due to a shoulder reconstruction.

The former All Black goes under the knife tomorrow.

"It's a real shame but I'm only 22 and have got a lot of rugby left in me," Kaino said.

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Three provincial players have been warned and reprimanded, with two ordered to pay costs, after failing drug tests.

The NZRFU says Tom Kahukiwa and Adrian Collier (East Coast) and Richard Anderson (Buller) tested positive for cannabis, a substance on the World Anti-Doping Agency's list of prohibited substances.

Anderson and Collier were ordered to pay costs of $250.

- additional reporting by NZPA