The Blues have teamed up with New Zealand's top mixed martial arts fighters and coach, preparing for their upcoming season at Auckland's City Kickboxing gym.
Top Kiwi UFC trainer Eugene Bareman and his UFC fighters Kai Kara France and Shane Young put the Auckland Super Rugby team through their paces with wrestling and boxing drills.
Bareman imparted some words of wisdom on the embattled New Zealand Super Rugby franchise after their gruelling session.
"We never talk about losing and to be honest if you lose, we give it to you if you lose," said Bareman.
"We have just created a culture of winning and we don’t accept losing.
"When someone [fighter] loses, we give them a lot of stick cause you shouldn't be celebrated if you lose, you're a loser and that's the way."
The Blues haven't made the Super Rugby play-offs since 2011, where they lost to the Queensland Reds in the semi-finals.
"We only accept winning, if you win a fight we have a rule like if you win you are allowed to go out, have a party, you know drink and take a week off and pretend like you are the man. Get around town and blah, blah, blah," Bareman said.
"But if you lose on Saturday night, you have f***ing got to get here on Monday morning, you don't get any of that [celebrate].
"We've created that culture and I think that is part of our success."
Bareman has five New Zealand fighters fighting out of his gym in the UFC; middleweight star Israel Adesanya, lightweight fighter Dan Hooker, flyweight Kara France, featherweight Young and welterweight Luke Jumeau.
Adesanya is fighting in next month's UFC 234 co-main event in Melbourne, taking on Brazilian MMA legend Anderson Silva.
With Kara Frace and Young set to fight in the undercards.
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