The Blues 37-19 loss to the Hurricanes in the Rebel Sports Super 14 opener is hardly the start coach David Nucifora was after but he knows there will be a few hurdles along the way to reaching the playoffs.

Nucifora's team was on the end of a 34-3 second half scoreline after torrential rain fell just after the break.

Pretty much when the rain came we went to water. It is not really acceptable that you turn at 16-3 and lose by that scoreline, he said.

Obviously the game loosened up and we didn't play the conditions as well as they did.

A key area Nucifora wants the Blues to tighten up on is the control and accuracy clearing the ball from set pieces.

Our control from the set piece was not good enough. They disrupted our ball at the back of the scrum and it snowballed from there.

We didn't control the field position as well as we should have because the quality of our ball was not as good as it should have been and the number of turnovers in the first 13 minutes of the second half let them back into the game.

Nucifora admits the Hurricanes loose trio of Rodney So'oialo, Chris Masoe and Jerry Collins dominated in the wet conditions.

We lost a bit of composure. They were playing field position and putting the ball in behind us and once that happened their loose forwards came into their own and they out-muscled us from that point.

A crucial point in the second half came when John Senio was replaced at halfback by Steve Devine only for Devine to suffer a serious head knock a minute later.

Nucifora was philosophical about losing Devine so soon after he came on.

When you make a change like that you probably don't anticipate in the first minute your halfback getting a knock in the head like that. It wasn't great for us.

The Blues led 16-3 at the break but Nucifora was not satisfied with the lead.

I was quite comfortable where we were at halftime but I felt we still didn't nail opportunities in that first half and should have put at least one more try on them.

We had a couple of set pieces in their 22 and we were either a bit untidy or we didn't really nail the play we should have called.

The Blues are on the road for the next three games, starting this Friday night against the Highlanders in Dunedin