Auckland: Auckland Blues coach Sir John Kirwan has launched a scathing attack on his players and a lack of passion after they failed to fire against the ACT Brumbies at Eden Park.
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The Blues missed an opportunity to rise up the ladder and their finals hopes are now dangling by a thread following the 20-13 defeat at the hands of the Brumbies.
But while the Brumbies “out-passioned” the Blues in a desperate contest, Kirwan is adamant the Australian conference race is still wide open between the ACT side and the Queensland Reds.
The Blues won just four games last season but have turned their performances around to be in finals contention this year. But close enough isn’t good enough for Kirwan.
His post-match press conference was conducted while the Brumbies belted out their team song from the change rooms and the Blues mentor didn’t hold back in a brutal assessment of his team’s effort.
“You can hear them singing next door,” Kirwan said of the Brumbies.
“That’s how big this game was. You can’t come with that attitude like that, we need to take a serious look at ourselves.
“I’d like to apologise to our fans. We were being out-passioned in every part of the game. We just muddled through it.
“This is playoff time, we’ve got to step up. You can’t turn up at this level and think it’s going to happen. If anyone in that change room makes excuses, they should change franchises. We lost a football game on attitude. That’s unacceptable if you put that jersey on.”
The Blues destroyed the Brumbies’ season of dreams last year with a last-round victory at Canberra Stadium which cost the ACT side a finals berth.
The roles were reversed in New Zealand as the Brumbies got the revenge they’d been craving for the past 10 months.
Kirwan has previously rated the Queensland Reds as the premier Australian team but the Brumbies lead the conference with just three games remaining.
“It’s a hard place to come and win and should be … the Brumbies needed to win and their players stepped up and wanted it more,” Kirwan said.
“They deserve to be where they are … [compared to the Reds] they’re two different styles, [Brumbies coach Jake White] has them incredibly disciplined and they put you under pressure. It will come down to the wire.”
For the Brumbies, the seven-point win snapped a two-game losing streak and will give them much-needed conference as the playoffs edge closer.
