FALSE DAWN RISING

In the end, 2019 looked much like every other season for the Blues. It was a year defined by all the same failings that have plagued the club since they last won a title in 2003.

It was a season that began with more hope than usual following the decision late in 2018 to change the coaching set-up, a surprise move which came about due to a major change in ownership and governance.

The last few months of the year were a strange and turbulent time at the club, but somehow, by December, the Blues had arrived in a good place.

It was hard to keep up with and follow the chain of events that led to the club having a major coaching re-shuffle just weeks after announcing head coach Tana Umaga had been re-appointed for another year.

To surmise, what happened was that the Blues board had decided in August to extend Umaga’s contract by one year.

They also let him appoint the highly regarded Leon MacDonald as his assistant. But in September, New Zealand Rugby managed to persuade major shareholder Murray Bolton to sell his near 50 per cent stake in the club.

After buying it back the governing body then placed three of its own candidates on the board and oversaw the appointment of the experienced Don Mackinnon as chairman to give the Blues the functioning governance they hadn’t had since private equity was sought in 2012.

The new board received the review of Umaga’s performance and decided they couldn’t honour the agreement to give him another year.

Potentially this could have been a legal minefield, but chief executive Michael Redman was able to persuade Umaga to stay on as defence coach, while MacDonald and the other newly appointed assistant, Tom Coventry, were asked to apply for the head job.

MacDonald was chosen, Umaga agreed to a new role and with a unified board the Blues, somewhat haphazardly and clumsily, reached December with an unbridled sense of optimism that their fortunes were finally going to change.

But 2019 ended with all the same feelings of frustration and disappointment.

There was a mid-season high when they won four in a row, a run which combined with a series of unexpected results in the other conferences, meant the Blues were still in the play-off hunt in the final three weeks.

But they blew their big chance in