The Blues are a Super 14 rugby team based around Auckland, New Zealand. Originally known as Auckland, from 1997 onwards the name became simply Blues, in a renaming shared by other teams such as the (Wellington) Hurricanes and (Canterbury) Crusaders.
The Blues serve the upper third of the North Island of New Zealand, including Auckland and Whangarei. Their region contains the fewest provincial unions of any New Zealand team with only three: North Shore, Auckland, and Northland. However, all three unions are first-division NPC teams.
The Blues have featured several All Black stars such as Carlos Spencer and Kees Meeuws, and have put them to use in winning the title three times to date, including the first two seasons.
Home games for the team are played at Eden Park, Auckland, North Harbour Stadium, Albany (home of North Harbour) and Okara Park, Whangarei (home of Northland).
History
The Blues have had a mixed bag of results in past Super 12 and Super 14 seasons. Their end-of-season results are thus:
Year Final Position Competition Points Notes
1996 1 (2) 41 Beat Sharks in final
1997 1 (1) 50 Beat Brumbies in final
1998 2 (1) 43 Lost to Crusaders in final
1999 9 23
2000 6 30
2001 11 21
2002 6 29
2003 1 (1) 39 Beat Crusaders in final
2004 5 32
2005 7 27
(Super 14 begins from 2006)
2006 8 29
2007 4 42 Lost to Sharks in semi-final
2008 6 40