The forecast for Saturday’s Super Rugby final is more rain but it’s not the only challenge the Blues are expecting at Eden Park.
Saturday’s match against the Crusaders in front of a sold out crowd will be the Blues’ first chance to win a complete Super Rugby competition since 2003 when it was the same southern rivals looking to deny them.
Since then, there’s been plenty of turnover – both on and off the field – but at training this week, a lighter, more settled mood appears to have settled in over the side.
Roger Tuivasa-Sheck was “pumped”, Tom Robinson was basking in the sun and when asked if he was ready for the weekend, a chipper Sam Darry simply told 1News “s*** yeah”.
They even had former players such as All Blacks prop John Afoa at training, offering some advice and excitement after he spent 10 years at the club without tasting championship glory.
The relaxed environment stems from the top, although even their coach had to learn it.
“It’s a different mind set up here in Auckland than in the South Island,” coach Leon MacDonald, a former Crusader himself, said.
“I’ve adapted to that and grown, opening my mind in terms of doing things - there's different ways of doing things, you don't have to do it the same way.”
When it’s time to switch on, the Blues are doing something different in that department too with training pitches better resembling crop circles with unique lines painted for drills.
MacDonald said there wasn’t anything supernatural about them but they were helping his side grow.
“We use those for setting running lines and passing width,” he said.
“They’re really good with our cameras to see spaces… generally, if you’re running nice and square, you’ve got nice measures to measure yourself against.”
Come Saturday, the only lines that will matter will be the one at either end of Eden Park with a chance to end a 19-year drought on the cards.
“They’ve found a sense of purpose and identity,” Blues chief executive Andrew Hore said.
“I think that’s what is working well as well as the performances on the field.”
But even Hore knows about the calm before the storm with the Crusaders looking to add their fifth title under coach Scott Robertson.
“It’s still a competition that has the best players in the world,” Hore said.
“Sometimes we forget that.”
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