The Blues head off on a two-week Aussie mission this Thursday afternoon, with their first target in sight the Queensland Reds on Saturday night at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane.

A potential debut lies in wait for Blues Loose-Forward James Thompson with Akira Ioane staying back in Auckland awaiting the birth of his first child. 

Industrious Blindside Flanker Anton Segner is elevated to the starting team for the match while Sam Darry returns to the run on XV after an appearance from the bench last weekend.

Blues Head Coach, Vern Cotter was wary of the challenge that lay in front of his team on Saturday.

“We’re under no illusion as to how difficult it’s going to be to play them up there in Queensland,” said Cotter.

“All we want from our boys is consistent effort, attitude and habits; and each week is a good test of those characteristics for us as a team,” he said.

The same backline runs on to face the Reds, with the only change seeing AJ Lam in the 14 jersey, meaning a switch to the left for Mark Tele’a and a bench spot for Caleb Clarke.

“Caleb’s been on lighter duties to start the week and give his calf a rest. AJ’s been playing well, and this is an opportunity for him to start the game,” said Cotter.

The front row also sees a few minor tweaks with Angus Ta’avao and Soane Vikena elevated to the starting XV for the match in Brisbane.

“We’re playing on their turf and we feel they’ve simplified their game - looking to come at us reasonably direct on Saturday,” said Cotter.

“They’re a team that defensively are quite good at holding players up and they’ll try to slow our ball down, so we’ve had an emphasis on ensuring we deal with that this week.”

“We need to make sure we can get fast ball, and if we can I think we can create breaches and hopefully do enough damage to come away with the win,” Cotter said. 

The Blues play the Reds on Saturday, remain in Australia to play the Rebels in Melbourne next Friday, before returning to Auckland for a string of home games to round out their  Super Rugby Pacific round-robin.

Blues:

1. Ofa Tu’ungafasi

2. Soane Vikena

3. Angus Ta’avao

4. Patrick Tuipulotu (c)

5. Sam Darry

6. Anton Segner

7. Dalton Papali’i 

8. Hoskins Sotutu

9. Taufa Funaki

10. Harry Plummer

11. Mark Tele’a

12. Bryce Heem

13. Rieko Ioane

14. AJ Lam

15. Cole Forbes

    Reserves:

16. Kurt Eklund

17. Joshua Fusitu’a

18. Marcel Renata

19. Laghlan McWhannell

20. James Thompson*

21. Sam Nock

22. Corey Evans

23. Caleb Clarke

*Potential debut

Players not considered: Stephen Perofeta (shoulder), Finlay Christie (groin), Zarn Sullivan (knee), Rob Rush (calf), Cam Suafoa (sickness), Akira Ioane (paternity leave)

Saturday 27 April

Queensland Reds v Blues 

Kick-off 9:35pm

Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane

LIVE on Sky Sport and Gold Sport & iHeart Radio