Blues may have been fazed by the 'unfamiliar' favourites tag says Cotter

It's one thing to climb the mountain and it's another thing entirely to stay on top of it with challengers rising to fight for the spot, as the Blues found out with a complete reversal of last year's grand final between the same two teams.

While the first half did see the Blues grab 14-6 half-time lead head coach Vern Cotter didn't believe his side had full control.

"I don't know if we were fully in control from the start," Cotter responded when asked if it was a game of two halves.

"If you look at a game from eight months ago, are the Chiefs that much better or are we that much worse? Those are the sorts of things we will look at."

Cotter suggested that the unfamiliar favourites tag may have played a part in the defeat to the Chiefs in the opening round of Super Rugby Pacific.

After a title drought that last over 20 years, this crop of Blues players haven't experienced what it is like to be the hunted rather than the hunter.

"I just feel every team needs to go through these types of emotions and feelings after games," he said.

"It's never going to be all one way, and I think for this team to mature and learn again, this is something they haven't experienced.

"These players haven't experienced it, the last time was 21 years ago, coming back in as favourites.

"We need to just ask some questions and just create awareness around where we're at the moment. I think that's really key to moving forward, there's parts of the game I think we can make better decisions in."

Cotter praised the mentality that the Chiefs brought to the fixture, saying they "locked in" from the start and played a physical game.

"I expected it to be a little bit to-and-fro, but if you look at the Chiefs play, I mean they locked in and bought a physical edge and it was hard for us to grab.

"And even though, despite that, you know, there was the opportunity to score Mark [Tele'a] if he gets down on the line, can they change momentum?

"What I thought we didn't do particularly well is adapt. I think we've got ourselves comfortable around dominating scoring, I think sometimes you need to learn to adapt."