Beauden Barrett to get X-ray on hand as Blues add to injury count

By Christopher Reive

Another week, another nervous wait for the Blues.

After returning to first five-eighths for the first time this season, Beauden Barrett showed signs of his best in the first half of the side’s 21-20 loss to the Brumbies on Friday night in Auckland.

However, the 33-year-old was forced from the pitch after the first half due to a hand injury.

“He will need an X-ray,” Blues coach Vern Cotter said.

“It doesn’t look particularly good, but we’ll wait for the results.”

It was a similar case for hooker Ricky Riccitelli, who left the field with about 10 minutes left in the contest after he was seen holding his chest and trying to position himself away from the action.

The Blues went into the game with 13 players already unavailable.

“Ricky doesn’t look good. We’ll assess that with the injuries. [Saturday] is going to be a busy day and we’ll see who can get back into the team for next week,” Cotter said.

“I’m really happy for [loose forward] Cam Christie. He hasn’t had a lot of starts for the Blues team. I thought he was very good tonight. There were some positive things within the game.

“The first 40 minutes were good, then we didn’t start the first 10 in the second particularly well. There will be some things to address in that, but we’ll keep moving forward. These are tough times but we just have to go forward.”

While he had his issues from the kicking tee, Barrett played a big role in the Blues going into halftime with the lead. He scored the first try of the night with a display of speed and footwork to get through the Brumbies’ defence and helped to create space for teammates to exploit.

His absence was notable in what became a stagnant Blues attack in the second half, with the Brumbies asserting their dominance at the breakdown and scoring the only points of the second half to claim their first win at Eden Park since 2013.

When asked if Barrett’s early exit made things difficult for his side, Cotter said there was enough experience on the park to counter that.

“They’re a very good team, the Brumbies, we’ve got to acknowledge that. They get people to the breakdown quickly and we just couldn’t break them off or get turnovers as much as we’d have liked.

“But I thought we stayed intact and when there are only two points in the game it’s always a nervous finish. Territory’s key and I thought the boys did pretty well but unfortunately came up short through a marginal decision in a scrum.”

The loss means the Blues fall to a 1-3 record through the first month of the competition, with two of those losses coming at Eden Park. On both occasions, the Blues failed to score a point in the second half.

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission