Martin Devlin presents We Need to Talk where he discusses the most important domestic rugby match of the season thus far. Video / Newstalk ZB
OPINION:
With a trans-Tasman travel bubble a sudden and real possibility, this Sunday's clash between the Blues and Crusaders has become the pivotal game in Sky Super Rugby Aotearoa.
If, as seems increasingly likely, Super Rugby Aotearoa is capped at two rounds, the Blues will be facing the almost impossibleshould they lose at Eden Park.
A Crusaders victory will push them into an almost unassailable lead – one which would leave them cruising towards not only making the final but hosting it.
The Blues would become Luna Rossa, trailing a faster boat on a course which offers little in the way of surprise as none of the Chiefs, Highlanders or Hurricanes look capable of doing anything to take the wind out of the Crusaders' sails.
This, then, qualifies as a must-win game for the Blues – something they haven't experienced for an age, probably since they met the Reds in the semi-final in 2011.
Blues celebrate a try by Akira Ioane of the Blues during the round three Super Rugby Aotearoa match between the Blues and the Highlanders. Photo / Getty Images.
What the Blues have this weekend is one of those rare opportunities to put a date stamp on the moment they transitioned from the nearly men of Super Rugby Aotearoa to genuine contenders.
We will all be able to see whether the Blues now have a champion's mentality and are no longer willing to be content with getting close to beating the Crusaders.
What became clear last year and has been reinforced in 2021, is that the Blues are good enough to win Super Rugby.
Pound for pound, they can match the Crusaders. On raw talent stakes, there's more stuffed into the blue shirts than there is the red.
The separation point is attitude and belief. The Crusaders keep winning because they have it in their heads that's what they are to do.
There's nothing blurred about their ambition. They know that winning is not the same thing as nearly winning.
They know that being champions feels a lot different to being nearly champions.
The Blues, probably because they have endured periods in the last 15 years when they have actually been awful, have it in their heads that it will be enough to make things exciting – to earn respect by hanging in there. Their ambition has been more about restoring credibility – something they have deemed possible to do without actually becoming champions.
The plucky loser tag sat quite comfortably on the Blues last year after their only Super Rugby Aotearoa clash against the Crusaders. They were in control until the last quarter – the point at which the Crusaders slipped into champion gear and scored two tries to rescue the result.
And that is essentially the question that hangs over the Blues now. Do they have that same ability to dig into themselves and produce ruthless, dynamic rugby when they are under pressure?
The game last year was the perfect illustration of how the two sides differ. The Crusaders thrive in the white-hot intensity of a must-win game while the Blues were unsure how or possibly didn't possess the same ability to produce clinical football when it mattered most.
The second Covid-19 outbreak denied the Blues an opportunity last year to show what they had learned from that defeat in Christchurch and so here we are now, with the first chance to see what, if anything, has changed.
In the recent past, the Blues haven't had a solid core that can withstand the toughest challenges. When they have been poked and prodded, they haven't liked it.
Big occasion football just hasn't been their thing, but the evidence points towards them being better equipped to win a must-win game than they have been at any time since 2003.
Akira Ioane is perhaps the individual who provides the greatest clue to the change in the collective.
Akira Ioane of the Blues makes a break during the round one Super Rugby Aotearoa match between the Hurricanes and the Blues at Sky Stadium. Photo / Getty Images.
Last year in Christchurch he was guilty of being easily distracted and pulled into superficial scuffles. He was a player the Crusaders knew could be put off focusing on the right things.
Look at him now, though, a year on. He's a different beast. He seems oblivious to anyone trying to get under his skin, his scrag tackling has been eradicated and what the Blues have now is the most dynamic, destructive and singularly focused No 6 in the country.
The Crusaders will find little mileage in playing Ioane off the ball. They won't be able to rely on him self-combusting in the final quarter and Ioane epitomises the growth in maturity that has been witnessed across the Blues squad.
This is a moment in time game for the Blues – a chance for them to show they understand what it takes to win the toughest games.
A chance to finally prove they understand the mind-set of a champion.
