SUPER TROUPERS

THIS MARKS the last year of Super Rugby in its current format as Sunwolves will drop out at the end of the season and it will revert to 14 teams. Crusaders have ruled in recent years but there are myriad changes across the franchises as players start anew overseas after RWC 2019. SA Rugby magazine have compiled this team-by-team guide for Super Rugby 2020, which runs in one block leading up to the July Test window.

BLUES

Last year 13th (W5 D1 L10)

Overview While they have tended to have exciting attacking players, a lack of forward grunt has seen the team finish bottom of the New Zealand conference seven times in the past nine years.

Yet the Auckland side will go into 2020 with lofty ambitions. Unlike their New Zealand rivals, they have managed to retain a good deal of their 2019 squad and while Ma’a Nonu and Sonny Bill Williams have departed, they have signed Beauden Barrett. The All Blacks playmaker is expected to link up with the team halfway through the season after a short break from rugby.

It is hoped that Barrett will strike up an effective combination with fellow All Black Rieko Ioane, who has signalled his intention to switch from wing to centre.

Blues coach Leon MacDonald has said: “We make no bones about the fact that we are going to be a hard-working team. There won’t be any predictions coming from this group, just a case of no guts, no glory.” This is a vital mental shift, which could pay dividends and see the Blues fulfil their promise and make a charge for the play-offs.

“There won’t be any predictions coming from this Blues group, just a case of no guts, no glory”

The Ioane brothers, Akira and Rieko, have much to prove, but it will be most interesting to see how loan signing Joe Marchant fares. The 23-year-old England centre joins as part of an agreement between