D'Arcy Waldegrave: A Blues victory is essential for the good of NZ rugby

The All Sport Breakfast

Whoda thunk it? The Warriors play this afternoon, and they play second fiddle to rugby union.

Granted, it’s an NRL regular season game versus a super rugby final, but for the Wahs to be overshadowed by the Blues is quite something right?

Is it a case of the media losing interest in a team that appears to be losing touch with the NRLs top 8 after a sloppy effort versus the Storm? That the game is on the Gold Coast not at the perpetually full Mt Smart? Or NZ’s national game has finally presented an engaging season with a great product culminating in a traditional hate match at a sold-out Eden Park?

After 2 decades of failure, a Blues win may be the panacea the game needs in the country's biggest city. With the biggest catchment area, it is bizarre that the team has won essentially nothing in over 2 decades. Sure, there was the cobbled together covid Trans Tasman series, 5 rounds of pandemic confusion, but a title of significance is but a distant memory.

There are many reasons for the resurgence of interest in Super Rugby - a series that is attempting to be more, dare I say it, fancentric. The referees are pulling their heads in, the slight tweaks to the laws and a desire by the teams to play heads up, running rugby. This excitement has come as players are keen to impress a new AB coach, looking to restructure and reinvigorate the national side in the shadow of retirements and sabbaticals. After the multi car pile ups of rugby's ham-fisted administration, rugby on the park, without a peep from the suit crew, has really shone. Note to NZR, be quiet.

The Warriors have owned the oval ball code in the Queen city of recent times. A heady mix of being part of a slick product and some eye-opening results through the Webster era, has injected life into the franchise not seen in sometime.

Rugby desperately needs this rolling maul of a seasons end and will be looking to put an exclamation mark on it with this huge final.

For the good of rugby in NZ, a Blues victory is essential.

Not that the Chiefs will agree or play ball.

Game on.

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