Papali’i to lead Blues, injury cloud over Ioane for semi-final

Blues coach Vern Cotter is not keen on doing anything dramatically different as his side heads into this Friday night’s Super Rugby Pacific semi-final against the Brumbies.

He has made only one change, with Sam Darry starting at lock for the injured Patrick Tuipulotu, with James Thompson coming onto the bench.

“Keep things simple, respect the fundamentals of the game,” said Cotter in his assessment of how to tackle the top ranked Australian side.

“Their lineouts one of the better lineouts in the competition for taking ball. So, we will rock and roll out of different situations. We might not get things as we want, but we just will be able to have that connection to the game and what we want to achieve.”

Tuipulotu’s absence, due to a knee injury suffered in last weekend’s 36-5 quarter-final victory over the Fijian Drua, means Dalton Papali’i will captain the side.

“We know the Brumbies are going to be coming here with a vengeance and we just got to be good, prepare ourselves,” Papali’i said.

“So, it’s going to be a big one. And just making sure our collisions, physicality and not being complacent.”

Papali’i starts at openside, however there is a question mark over the fitness of blindside Akira Ioane. Cotter said the 21-test All Black would be monitored on Thursday before a final decision would be made. Ioane this week announced a move to Japan, something that Papali’i said that the team would be using as motivation.

“A player like that leaves such a big legacy in this team. Also, even off the field, he’s one of those guys that new players will be coming in and he’ll just put his arm around you, just look after you.”

The Blues certainly can take a lot out of the last time the sides met, which was a one-sided affair at Eden Park back in round eight. The 46-7 result was arguably the Blues’ most complete performance of the year, however, Cotter was quick to remark that the Brumbies had not lost a game since.

“They’ve said in this last week that it was a game they took a lot from, especially around the collision and contact area. They’ve told us via the press this week that they will be ready and they feel that they’ll be able to dominate us.

“So that’s been taken on board both by the boys, first and foremost. So, we expect the game, it’ll be tightly contested around all that collision area, the point of contact… from there, things will happen either positively or negatively… set piece will be set piece.”

Friday night will be a rematch of a memorable semi-final between the two sides that took place in 2022. The Blues were cruising with a 20-7 lead with 20 minutes to play, before two Brumbies tries closed the gap up to 20-19. A drop goal attempt by Noah Lolesio as time expired was charged down by Ofa Tu’ungafasi to seal a dramatic win for the Blues.

Blues v Brumbies

Kick-off: 7.05pm Friday 14 June

Eden Park, Auckland

Live blog coverage on RNZ Sport

Blues: 1 Ofa Tu’ungafasi, 2 Ricky Riccitelli, 3 Marcel Renata, 4 Sam Darry, 5 Josh Beehre, 6 Akira Ioane, 7 Dalton Papali’i (c), 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 James Thompson, 20 Adrian Choat, 21 Taufa Funaki, 22 Corey Evans, 23 Cole Forbes