A believer in sporting miracles, Sir John Kirwan hasn't given up on his beleaguered Blues making the Super Rugby finals despite their none-from-six start to the season.
The Blues surrendered a second-half lead to succumb 23-11 to the defending champion NSW Waratahs in Sydney on Saturday night, the defeat turning up the heat even further on Kirwan.
The All Blacks legend candidly admitted pre-game that he was under pressure to deliver, but he departed Allianz Stadium relatively upbeat and certainly not giving up the ghost.
"We're still in the hunt," Kirwan said.
"You know, we've got to win two away games and then all our home games.
"So we've still got a glimmer of hope."
In a spirited but ultimately fruitless display, the Blues led 11-10 at the hour mark before a Bernard Foley penalty nudged the Waratahs back in front.
But the titleholders didn't clinch victory until replacement winger Peter Betham scored three minutes after Blues captain Jerome Kaino was yellow-carded for a high tackle on NSW skipper Dave Dennis.
Kirwan felt the Blues were hard done by having to play the final nine minutes a man short, as did Waratahs coach Michael Cheika, who agreed Kaino and Dennis had merely clashed heads.
"It looked like a pretty good tackle to me," Kirwan said.
"I thought the ball carrier was ducking down and Jerome was in the acceleration to make a tackle so there was a head clash.
"I thought a penalty was sufficient, but the TMO has got to make those calls and we have got to live with them.
"I was incredibly proud of the courage and commitment we showed for 71 minutes and then a yellow card was just a turning point.
"But I thought we were in the game and let ourselves down with some simple errors.
"We knew we had to match them physically and I thought we did that.
"We just didn't take our moments ... you've got to take those moments at this level. Otherwise you're sitting where we are."
That is, last on the competition table.
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