By BEN JAYCOCK
TOM Coventry’s Blues go into the new Super Rugby Aotearoa season without their star playmaker Beauden Barrett who has opted for a lucrative sabbatical in Japan.
But last year’s runnersup are determined to unseat reigning champions Crusaders and will look to their backline firepower of Reiko Ioane, Caleb Clarke and Mark Telea.
In Otere Black, Stephen Perofeta and Harry Plummer, the Blues have the depth at 10 to negate Barrett’s absence. The Auckland side’s pack looks quality, too, with the addition of Nepo Laulala bringing their All Blacks prop quota to four, and a stack of out...