| Unions | New Zealand Rugby Union | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Founded | 1996 | ||
| Location | Auckland, New Zealand | ||
| Region | Auckland North Harbour Northland |
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| Ground(s) | Eden Park (Capacity: 50,000) | ||
| Coach(es) | Pat Lam | ||
| Captain(s) | Keven Mealamu | ||
| League(s) | Super Rugby | ||
| 2011 | 4th | ||
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Blues (formerly the Auckland Blues) are a professional New Zealand rugby union team based in Auckland, New Zealand which represents the Northland, North Harbour and Auckland unions in the Super Rugby competition. Like New Zealand's four other Super Rugby sides, the Blues were established by the NZRU in 1996. The Blues won the competition in each of its first two seasons, 1996 and 1997, and lost narrowly to the Canterbury Crusaders in the 1998 final at Eden Park. The team's initial burst of success was followed by a period of modest success, before a resurgent side went on to win the 2003 competition, defeating the Crusaders in the final. Since the expansion of the competition to fourteen sides in 2006, the Blues have had mixed results. The side's two playoff appearances since then came in 2007, when they lost to the Sharks in the semi-final in Durban, and in 2011 when they were defeated in the semi-final by the eventual champions the Queensland Reds in Brisbane.
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Along with New Zealand's other Super Rugby sides, the Blues were established by the NZRU to take part in the newly formed Super 12 competition which, involved provincial teams from South Africa and Australia in addition to New Zealand. Each of New Zealand's five sides represented a number of provincial unions, with the Blues representing the Auckland, Thames Valley, and the Counties Manukau unions, while the neighbouring Waikato Chiefs representing the Waikato, North Harbour, Northland, Bay of Plenty and King Country unions. During this era, the Blues played the majority of their home matches at Eden Park, with round robin fixtures occasionally held at Growers Stadium in Pukekohe.
The Blues tasted immediate success, winning the Super 12 back-to-back in 1996 and 1997. In 1996 the side won eight of eleven round robin matches and finished the regular season in second place (behind the Queensland Reds on 41 points. They then went on to defeat Northern Transvaaal, now the Bulls, 48-11 in the semi-final at Eden Park. This result secured a home final, where the Blues comfortably defeated the Natal Sharks 45-21. In 1997, the side improved on their previous season, comfortably topping the table with 50 points after going undefeated in the regular season, the sole blemish on an otherwise perfect season being a draw with Northern Transvaal in a re-match of thh previous season's semi-final. The Blues once again easily won their semi-final, defeating the Natal Sharks 55-36 at Eden Park and again securing a home final. The 1997 final was a more hard fought encounter than the previous year's, with the Blues defeating the ACT Brumbies 23-7. With three championships and two further semi-final appearances, the Blues are the second most successful team in Super Rugby history.
By the end of the 1990s the number of international from the Blues' region had decreased. This led the Blues and the Chiefs to arrange a swap, where the Chiefs would represent the Thames Valley and Counties Manukau unions in exchange for the Blues representing the Northland and North Harbour unions in addition to Auckland. Although in the seasons leading up to the trade North Harbour and Northland had outperformed Counties Manukau and Thames Valley in provincial rugby (thus potentially widening the already sizeable gap between the Blues' and Chiefs' on-field performance), it enabled both teams to represent unions in closer geographical proximity. Because of this trade, the Blues lost the area colloquially referred to as South Auckland, (excluding those portions of the South Auckland to the north of Manurewa). Thus, the Blues traded a portion of South Auckland for the Northern portion of the Auckland region and Northland, and still do not represent the entire Auckland region. In 2000 all of New Zealand's Super 12 franchises dropped the regional identifiers from their official names.
The 1998 season saw the Blues again top the points table with 43 points at the conclusion of the round robin, with nine wins and two losses to their credit. They defeated the Otago Highlanders by 37-31 in the side's third consecutive home semi-final, securing a home final against the Crusaders, a match which promised a great deal due to Auckland's traditional sporting rivalry with Canterbury. The Crusaders ultimately won the match by 20-13, putting an end to the Blues' dominance of the competition.
From 1999 - 2002 the Blues' onfield performance was poor, missing the playoffs every season, finishing at an all time low of 11th on the ladder in 2001 with just four wins for the season. The franchise was able to turn its from around in the 2003 season, topping the ladder with 49 points and 10 wins from 11 matches. The team went on to defeat the ACT Brumbies by 42-21 in the semi-final, before beating the Crusaders 21-17 in the final for the franchise's third Super Rugby title. The Blues were unable to follow their 2003 success up in 2004 and 2005 however, missing the playoffs in both seasons.
The expanded 14 team competition couldn't have started worse for the Blues were in 2006 forced by the NZRU to include North Harbour captain Rua Tipoki in their squad of 24 players who are 'protected' from the draft. Tipoki was originally to be excluded from the draft due to personal circumstances in order to stay in Auckland. Andrew Mehrtens had in the past done this with the Crusaders. The NZRU however forced coach David Nucifora to pick Tipoki in his 24 man squad and hence drop another player. It is believed the NZRFU was in favour of dropping players such as Isa Nacewa who are ineligible to play for the All Blacks.[1] Instead, Nucifora excluded All Black Isaia Toeava, who subsequently played for the Hurricanes in 2006. Following the draft fiasco, and the forgettable season which followed, the Blues showed signs of resurgence in 2007, finishing the round robin in fourth place, securing a semi-final against the Sharks in Durban. The travel and form of the opposition were too difficult to overcome, however, with the Blues losing to the eventual runners-up by 34 - 18. The 2008 season, the final under coach David Nucifora, saw the team finish the season with an 8 - 5 record and a sixth place finish on the ladder. In 2009, Pat Lam was appointed as coach, however the team have not been able to make significant improvements under his leadership, missing the playoffs in both the 2009 and 2010 seasons.
In 2011 the Super Rugby competition was expanded to 15 teams and adopted a conference format. The Blues had a successful start to the season, defeating the Crusaders by 24-22 at Eden Park. This was followed by a win and a loss on their Southa African tour, followed by a 22-all draw against the Western Force in Perth. This was followed by a seven match winning streak between rounds five and twelve. However, the mid-season wining streak came to an abrupt end with a 37-31 loss to the Queensland Reds in Brisbane, which initiated a four match losing-streak. In the final round-robin match of the season, the Blues defeated the Highlanders by 33-16 at Eden Park, securing the side's first playoff appearance since 2007 and first home playoff match since 2003. The team subsequently defeated the New South Wales Waratahs 26 - 13 to secure a semi-final against the Queensland Reds in Brisbane, which they lost 30 - 13.
The team's primary home ground is Eden Park, located in the central Auckland suburb of Kingsland. The stadium has a capacity of 65,000. In addition to hosting Blues home matches, the ground is the home of the Auckland Rugby Football Union and Auckland Cricket, and is a frequent host of All Blacks matches.
In addition to Eden Park, Blues home matches are occasionally held at North Harbour Stadium, home of the North Harbour Rugby Union, and Okara Park, home of the Northland Rugby Union.
Since 1999, the Blues have represented the Auckland, North Harbour, and Northland rugby unions. At present, the Blues are 55% owned by Auckland, 25% by North Harbour, and 20% by Northland.[2] Up to and including 2010, all New Zealand-base Super 14 sides were able to protect 24 players from within their region each season. Players not protected by the Blues can be selected by any of the other four New Zealand teams for that season, while the Blues are also able to bring in players from other regions for the season. The team has predominantly drawn its players from its own provinces, with the vast majority of players hailing from Auckland, however in recent years several notable players have been signed from outside the region, such as Stephen Brett (Canterbury) and Alby Mathewson (Wellington).
From 2011 onwards, the NZRU has relaxed the rules imposed on teams in terms of player recruitment. New Zealand teams will move to a direct-contracting recruitment format, which will enable each team to field two foreign (non-New Zealand or Pacific Island) players each season, in addition to squad sizes increasing from 28 to 32 players. With the wider training groups taken into account, each team will have a 40 man squad.
The current Blues (and Auckland Rugby Football Union) CEO is former Counties and New Zealand player Andy Dalton. Along with Dalton, Greg Muir, Grant Fox, Gary Whetton, Geoff Vazey, Mike Budd, John Morgan and Andrew Golightly make up the Blues board.
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| Super 12/14 Results | |||||||||||
| Year | Played | Win | Draw | Loss | PF | PA | Diff | BP | Points | Place | Playoffs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | 11 | 8 | 0 | 3 | 408 | 354 | +54 | 9 | 41 | 1st | (defeated Natal in final) |
| 1997 | 11 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 435 | 283 | +152 | 8 | 50 | 1st | (defeated ACT Brumbies in final) |
| 1998 | 11 | 9 | 0 | 2 | 388 | 298 | +90 | 7 | 43 | 2nd | (lost final to Crusaders) |
| 1999 | 11 | 4 | 1 | 6 | 202 | 201 | +1 | 5 | 23 | 9th | |
| 2000 | 11 | 6 | 0 | 5 | 300 | 262 | +38 | 6 | 30 | 6th | |
| 2001 | 11 | 4 | 0 | 7 | 243 | 298 | -55 | 5 | 21 | 11th | |
| 2002 | 11 | 6 | 0 | 5 | 318 | 249 | +69 | 5 | 29 | 6th | |
| 2003 | 11 | 10 | 0 | 1 | 393 | 185 | +208 | 9 | 49 | 1st | (defeated Crusaders in final) |
| 2004 | 11 | 6 | 1 | 4 | 337 | 309 | +28 | 6 | 32 | 5th | |
| 2005 | 11 | 6 | 0 | 5 | 243 | 216 | +27 | 3 | 27 | 7th | |
| 2006 | 13 | 6 | 0 | 7 | 290 | 348 | -58 | 5 | 29 | 8th | |
| 2007 | 13 | 9 | 0 | 4 | 355 | 235 | +120 | 6 | 42 | 4th | (lost to the Sharks in the semi final) |
| 2008 | 13 | 8 | 0 | 5 | 354 | 267 | +87 | 8 | 40 | 6th | |
| 2009 | 13 | 5 | 0 | 8 | 339 | 369 | -30 | 12 | 32 | 9th | |
| 2010 | 13 | 7 | 0 | 6 | 376 | 333 | +43 | 9 | 37 | 7th | |
| Super Rugby Results | |||||||||||
| Year | Played | Win | Draw | Loss | PF | PA | Diff | BP | Points | Place | Playoffs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 16 | 9 | 1 | 5 | 405 | 335 | +70 | 10 | 60 | 4th | (lost to Queensland Reds in the semi-final) |
| Preceded by Inaugural Champions 2002 - Crusaders |
Super 12 Champions 1996 (first title) - 1997 (second title) 2003 (third title) |
Succeeded by 1998 - Crusaders 2004 - Brumbies |
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