Blues 2024

[cgrant]

Among the young guns : Che Clark, Thompson (who has played lock this year), Tristyn Cook.

[sparky]

@Tim Segner.

[African Monkey]

@cgrant Suafoa probably suits Cotter's style of play more, but at the same time, I like what Segner brings but he isn't as strong in the contact areas as others.

[Daffy Jaffy]

Merch -
https://shop.nzsuperrugbyclubs.co.nz/collections/blues-champions-range

[Landers92]

@cgrant said in Blues 2024:

Segner or Suafoa.

Would Rob Rush come into contention? That guy has so much talent imo.

[Duluth]

@Tim said in Blues 2024:

So, who plays 6 next year? That's a huge hole to fill.

Suafoa or Clark. I prefer Segner as a 7 or 8

Depends how the NPC goes

It'll be interesting to see where Segner plays for Auckland. I hope we see a a trio of: 7 Choat, 8 Segner & 6 Clark.

I assume Suafoa will mostly start at 8 for Harbour again. He probably has the inside running at this stage

[Kirwan]

Start with Suafoa and develop Clark. Pretty great position to be in.

[Duluth]

If you skim back in thread the main concern before the season kicked off was the locks. The area of weakness became a strength very quickly

Happy with any combination of Tuipulotu, Darry, Beehre, McWhannell.

Thompson had some very useful cameos. Suafoa only got a handful of mins at lock but he's still a handy loosie/lock (in 2023 he started 9 times at lock but is seems to be considered more of a loosie now)

[Duluth]

16 wins in a row at home now. That includes wins against all the other NZ sides

The Blues record is 21 from the first few years of SR

[nzzp]

@Duluth said in Blues 2024:

The Blues record is 21 from the first few years of SR

genuine questio: are you sure? I just went back and checked 96-98; I got 17 for proper comp games ... did they count preseason as well?

Edit: yes, am nerd.

[Duluth]

@nzzp

Is there an error here? Blues at home 96-98

Maybe you're only counting Eden Park? That was 18 17 in a row. There were 3 4 games at Pukekohe too

The current streak includes a Whangarei match

[edit] there was a small error, one of the Pukekohe games had Auckland as the location[/edit]

[nzzp]

@Duluth yep, that's it. Only EP for me.

[mikedogz]

@Duluth said in Blues 2024:

There were 4 games at Pukekohe too

Back when Pukekohe got regular super rugby.

[African Monkey]

@mikedogz Yeah the Blues were good like that.

[mimic]

@Tim said in Blues 2024:

So, who plays 6 next year? That's a huge hole to fill.

What's Sititi's contract at the Chiefs like?
Would be good for him to come back home.

[cliff]

@mimic am sure the chiefs would not be stupid enough to let him go

[nzzp]

@cliff said in Blues 2024:

@mimic am sure the chiefs would not be stupid enough to let him go

He's a Blues man. U20 captain. Come home Wallace, we still love you

[Duluth]

The Breakdown had this table showing the defence from recent champions

[Duluth]

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/350321200/numbers-how-2024-blues-compare-past-super-rugby-champions

Comparing to previous winners

Best average points for since 2005 (35.24)
Fewest average points against since 2008 (15.76)
Best ever average win margin (19.47)

[Duluth]

The final MOTM table

20 Dalton Papalii
15 Akira Ioane
14 Patrick Tuipulotu
11 Hoskins Sotutu
11 Mark Telea
10 Harry Plummer
8 Caleb Clarke
8 Taufa Funaki
4 Bryce Heem
4 Sam Darry
3 AJ Lam
3 Ofa Tu'ungafasi
2 Zarn Sullivan
2 Ricky Riccitelli
2 Josh Beehre
2 Laghlan McWhannell
1 Finlay Christie
1 Kurt Eklund

Loosies prominent as usual

Tuipulotu had a great season. He missed 7 matches but still finished in 3rd spot

This year some of the better performers didn't finish high on this table. Guys that consistently played well for some reason happened to get a lot of 4th, 5th or 6th places. Players like Lam, Rieko and most of the tight forwards