Sam Darry will miss the Super Rugby Pacific season with a shoulder injury. The six-test All Black suffered the knock at training a fortnight ago, with the Blues today confirming that he will require surgery.
Blues coach Vern Cotter described the incident as "one of those crazy little things that happens in training."
"You know, body on a body. He's seen a couple of specialists, and I think he'll be very close to getting that their shoulder operated on…(it's) really unfortunate for Sam and we'll miss him."
Cotter estimated Darry's recovery time to be at least five months, which would mean the lock would potentially be unavailable for the start of the test season.
Darry played a leading role in the Blues' breakthrough Super Rugby Pacific championship win last season, enough to earn an All Black call up to replace his Blues captain Patrick Tuipulotu. He debuted against Fiji in San Diego and scored a try in the All Blacks' loss to Argentina in Wellington during the Rugby Championship.
Sam Darry scores a try against the Pumas in Wellington. Photo: Photosport
While Darry will be a big loss, Cotter was confident his squad depth could absorb it.
"We've got Tristan Cook, who's impressed us through North Harbour. He's a big tall player. He can take and dominate lineouts. It's an opportunity for him to step up now. So one down, another one can hopefully do the job."
As well as the promising Cook, Cotter has Tuipulotu as one of his guaranteed starters. Josh Beehre, Laghlan McWhannell and Cam Christie will be in a tight race for the other locking spot, while Cameron Suafoa can cover the second row as well.
The Blues open their campaign against the Chiefs next Saturday, with Cotter acutely aware of their status as defending champions. However, he wasn't predicting any major changes to the way the direct and physical way the Blues went about winning the title last season.
"There's understanding around what we're doing, then defending it in real time," he said.
"We back ourselves to put a bit more speed and variation into the game just to keep people guessing. We scored the most tries in the competition and had the best defence. I don't know, do you want to change basic things around that?
"So we still want to score points where we want to stop other team scoring. So we'll double down on some of the stuff that we've done. And we know if we get things right, we can put ourselves in a position to win. And if we don't get them right, then we give the others an opportunity to beat us."
