Ex-All Blacks fly-half: Beauden Barrett ‘at his best’ will ‘probably’ be too strong for Damian McKenzie and the Chiefs

Former All Blacks fly-half Stephen Donald believes that an in-form Beauden Barrett will be enough for the Blues to get the better of the Chiefs and Damian McKenzie.

It has been a difficult season for the defending champions, who at one stage looked set to miss out on the Super Rugby Pacific play-offs, but they sneaked in on the final weekend.

They thrashed the Waratahs 46-6 to set up a match with the number one seeds in Hamilton on Saturday.

All Blacks subplot

McKenzie has been steering the ship at fly-half and, as a result, this game provides an intriguing subplot ahead of the All Blacks’ Test season.

Barrett and McKenzie are vying for that 10 shirt and this match could go some way to deciding which player takes it for the France series in July.

There is no doubt that the Chiefs man has been in better form this season, but Donald believes that the Blues star “at his best” could well have enough to get the better of his opponent.

“For the Blues to win, Beaudy needs to be Beaudy. I think the Chiefs could probably get by [without McKenzie being at his best], but I just think if Beaudy is at his best then the Blues probably win,” he said on the Aftermatch with Kirst & Beav.

Donald insists that they can’t just rely on Barrett weaving his magic, however, and has identified some key areas that the Auckland outfit need to get right.

“He’s only going to be at his best if they can get a platform for him. AJ Lam, Rieko [Ioane], they all get over the advantage line. They get [Mark] Tele’a into the game and they get [Caleb] Clarke into the game like they did against the Waratahs,” he said.

“It’s going to be harder for those boys to get into the game as much as they were [against the Waratahs], but if they can get that momentum that AJ Lam will provide them, Rieko can provide them then Beaudy Barrett’s influence and his big match experience can get them across the line.

“It’s a dream first round.”

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There is also an onus on the forwards to step up in the fundamentals. It was a strength of the Blues last year but they have struggled in those facets during the 2025 Super Rugby Pacific season.

Set-piece and gain line

“Defensively they need to somehow disrupt the set-piece of the Chiefs. If they can disrupt the set-piece of the Chiefs then that is going to win that gain line,” Donald said.

“If you can win the gain line against the Chiefs then you’re going to negate, to a point, their forward carriers who generate the fast ball for the McKenzies of this world.

“If you can win that first collision and not allow Tupou Vaa’i and Wallace Sititi to carry and pull that little ball inside, you’re going to restrict what McKenzie, [Cortez] Ratima and [Shaun] Stevenson are capable of doing.

“How are they going to do that? Big Paddy [Patrick Tuipulotu], [Laghlan] McWhannell have got a big job to try and disrupt the lineout. At scrum time a lot of people are talking that this Blues scrum is really coming along – [Joshua] Fusitu’a is doing a great job.”

The All Blacks hero did have a caveat, though, adding: “It’s [Samisoni] Taukei’aho throwing to Tupou Vaa’i or Taukei’aho throwing to Josh Lord, so these are All Blacks. It’s going to be a very difficult equation to be able to disrupt that set-piece.

“For the Blues to be able to have a chance of doing the job – and I give them a real chance – if they can disrupt, if they can win that gain line; that gain line is going to be so crucial.”

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