Stat chat: Where the Blues have droppped off in 2025

We are only two rounds into the Super Rugby Pacific season, and yet the reigning champions are already in danger of falling to their second-worst start to a season in the club’s history.

The Blues are in Wellington this week to take on the Hurricanes and there are some stark themes the 2024 champions will be desperate to bury.

While it is only early in the season, here are four statistics that illustrate the dropoff in performance from the Blues in 2025.

Carries

2024 Rank: 1
2024 Average: 135.3

2025 Rank: 9
2025 Average: 111

This is the big one. In the 2024 Super Rugby Pacific final, the Blues had 67 per cent possession and made well over double the carries of their opponents, the Chiefs. The Aucklanders famously won that game 41-10.

The man with the most carries to his name by the season’s end was Mark Tele’a, who was second only to Rob Valetini in the total season tally. In week one against the Chiefs, Tele’a made just seven carries, five below his average from a season ago. In week two against the Highlanders, that number diminished further to just four carries.

last season, the Blues were of course able to find Tele’a out wide thanks to their powerful work up front in the first instance. The biggest component of that forward momentum however now plies his trade in Japan.

Akira Ioane was second to Mark Tele’a in carries for the Blues in 2024 and boasted the fourth-most carries of any forward in the competition heading into that final game, where the former All Black contributed a game-high 18 carries.

The next most prolific ball-carrier among forwards was 2024 MVP Hoskins Sotutu. The All Blacks snub was sorely missed in week one against the Chiefs and contributed 12 carries for 22 metres upon returning to the field in round two.

To begin 2025, Ricky Riccitelli has continued his high usage rate on attack, joining Patrick Tuipulotu with a team-high 18 carries after two rounds. That works out to an average consistent with their 2024 stats, highlighting how the most effective ball carriers in the Blues pack are yet to pick up the extra workload left in Ioane’s wake. Cam Suafoa, who has replaced Ioane on the blindside flank, has 14 carries to his name after two starts in 2025.

Missed Tackles

2024 Rank: 1
2024 Average: 18.6

2025 Rank: 10
2025 Average: 31.5

Blues captain Patrick Tuipulotu had eight missed tackles in the entire 2024 Super Rugby campaign. He has nine already in 2025.

The team as a whole is tackling at 86.1 per cent, down from 88.3 per cent in 2024. Just a two per cent dropoff after only a two-game sample size is relatively insignificant, but the Blues are averaging 66 more tackles per game in addition to their 13 more missed attempts this season.

The tackle count is reflective of a remarkable shift in possession trends as the team struggles to win the territory battle without their trademark forward play and in a faster game with more ball in play time.

On a positive note, Dalton Papali’i is back leading the pack defensively and has been joined thus far by Ricky Riccitelli. The pair share top honours with 35 tackles and just three misses to their names, respectively.

Defenders Beaten

2024 Rank: 3
2024 Average: 26.5

2025 Rank: 9
2025 Average: 14

Both Caleb Clarke and Mark Tele’a were among the competition leaders in defenders beaten in 2024, beating 58 and 48 tackle attempts, respectively. Both players were also atop the competition statistics in metres made.

While players like Damian McKenzie, Sevu Reece, and Leroy Carter have each reached double-figure tackle breaks early in the new season, Harry Plummer leads the Blues with just six. Remarkably, Dalton Papali’i is the next best with four. Clarke and Tele’a have combined for just four tackle breaks between them.

Tele’a has more dominant tackles than tackle breaks, highlighting the defensive workload the Blues have had to endure over the opening two rounds.

The Blues as a team were making 6.3 linebreaks per game last season, which has dropped off a cliff to just three linebreaks per game in 2025, placing them dead last in the competition.

Comparing the post-contact metres made in the 2024 final vs the final rematch in round one, the Blues managed just half of their impressive 418-metre tally from that title-clinching effort in their first hit-out of the season. Against the Highlanders, that number dropped off further to 173 post-contact metres.

Player Line Breaks

1

Finn Hurley

2

2

Folau Fakatava

2

3

Sam Gilbert

1

Tries

2024 Rank: 1
2024 Average: 5.1

2025 Rank: 11
2025 Average: 2.5

The Blues scored an average of 35 points per game in 2024. They have scored 35 points in total across two rounds of action in 2025.

MVP Hoskins Sotutu was the man leading the way during the 2024 campaign, finishing first equal atop the competition standings with 12 tries to his name as well as eight try assists, good for third best on the season.

The Blues led the competition in counterattack tries, tries off lineouts and tries off turnovers in 2024. In round one of 2025, both of their tries were scored during phase play. In round two, all three tries were scored off lineouts.

This is true of the scoring DNA, which was evident last year when the Aucklanders proved most lethal during the first phase of the attack or after seven or more phases.

So far, the team are leading the way with six turnover wins per game, while their scrum success (100 per cent) and lineout success (93.1 per cent) rank first and third respectively. This signals that the platforms are still there for the Blues’ preferred try-scoring methods, yet the tries have not come.