‘He bleeds blue blood’: Inside Patrick Tuipulotu’s miraculous recovery

If Patrick Tuipulotu’s miraculous comeback to play in a Super Rugby Pacific final sounds familiar, it’s because it is. Just last year, Samuel Whitelock somehow overcame a serious Achilles injury to put in a man of the match performance for the Crusaders in their 25-20 win over the Chiefs.

It was an effort that then-coach Scott Robertson described as “immortal” and “god-like”, so will Tuipulotu have the same effect on a Blues side chasing their first full Super rugby title in 21 years?

“He’s got his game face on, he’s ready to go,” coach Vern Cotter said.

“It intensifies our pack … just having him back in is a calming influence as well. It’s good to have him back. Every individual responds differently to these injuries but we’re lucky he’s got some well-developed muscles around his thighs and calves. He bleeds blue blood.”

Tuipulotu suffered the medial cruciate ligament injury in the Blues’ 36-5 quarter-final over the Fijian Drua only two and a half weeks ago, with an initial prognosis saying that he would miss up to seven weeks of rugby.

Now he’s passed it, Tuipulotu will undoubtedly be a key part of the lineout in front of a sold-out Eden Park, a key battleground that the Blues will be keen to dominate early.

“He’s a part in the puzzle, there’s a strategy put together,” Cotter said.

“It’s his leadership and calming presence in big games that will be critical. Everyone needs to do their jobs and he’ll do his with the Patty flavour to it…it’s going to be fairly intense and he’ll help create the resilience in the team to help stay in as long as we can to get the result we want.”

Meanwhile, a fairytale ending is on the cards for fellow Blues veteran Akira Ioane, who plays his last game for the team on Saturday night. Running out alongside his brother Rieko, the 21-test All Black said that making his final Blues appearance a shot at winning the title was “always the goal”.

“I’m proud, not just for me but for my family, the journey we’ve had. It’s a special bunch of boys and I’ll miss them…I know the boys are in a good spot moving forward and we’ve paved the way for younger players to come and enjoy it,” Ioane said.

Despite the often-heated rivalry between the two neighbouring sides, Ioane said he wouldn’t treat the Chiefs any different from any other team.

“A final’s a final. They did a job and we’ve just started to hit our strides so it should be a good game out there.

“He’s a special player,” Ioane said about Tuipulotu.

Ioane said he was “pretty stoked to be playing my last game” with his skipper.

“He said he might strap up for Saturday and I was like ‘that’s crazy’…it’s good, it shows how much he loves the boys and loves this team. He’s a team man and the boys will follow him.”

Ioane has been named alongside Dalton Papali’i and Hoskins Sotutu in an in-form loose forward trio, up against an equally talented Chiefs unit of Luke Jacobson, Samipeni Finau and Wallace Sititi. In fact, there’s so much talent that all those men are in the conversation for Monday evening’s first All Black squad naming of the year.

The final will mean the Super Rugby title will be going to a team that hasn’t tasted ultimate success for a while, with the Chiefs having last won a title in 2013, while the Blues’ drought stretches all the way back to 2003.

Blues v Chiefs

Kick-off: 7:05pm Saturday 22 June

Eden Park, Auckland

Live blog coverage on RNZ Sport

Blues: 1 Ofa Tu’ungafasi, 2 Ricky Riccitelli, 3 Marcel Renata, 4 Patrick Tuipulotu (c), 5 Sam Darry, 6 Akira Ioane, 7 Dalton Papali’I, 8 Hoskins Sotutu, 9 Finlay Christie, 10 Harry Plummer, 11 Caleb Clarke, 12 AJ Lam, 13 Rieko Ioane, 14 Mark Tele’a, 15 Stephen Perofeta

Bench: 16 Kurt Eklund, 17 Joshua Fusitu’a, 18 Angus Ta’avao, 19 Josh Beehre, 20 Adrian Choat, 21 Taufa Funaki, 22 Bryce Heem, 23 Cole Forbes

Chiefs: 1. Aidan Ross, 2. Tyrone Thompson, 3. George Dyer, 4. Jimmy Tupou, 5. Tupou Vaa’I, 6. Samipeni Finau, 7. Luke Jacobson (c), 8. Wallace Sititi, 9. Cortez Ratima, 10. Damian McKenzie, 11. Etene Nanai-Seturo, 12. Rameka Poihipi, 13. Anton Lienert-Brown, 14. Emoni Narawa, 15. Shaun Stevenson

Bench: 16. Bradley Slater, 17. Jared Proffit, 18. Reuben O’Neill, 19. Manaaki Selby-Rickit, 20. Simon Parker, 21. Xavier Roe, 22. Quinn Tupaea, 23. Daniel Rona