Senior Blues players Keven Mealamu and Luke Braid say coach Sir John Kirwan has their full confidence after a rocky start to the Super Rugby season.

Kirwan is under fire as the Blues sit on the bottom of the Super Rugby table, winless after four games.

But Mealamu says the results aren’t just the coach’s fault.

“We’ve got to look at this as a team thing, not just coaches but players as well. We’re in this all together,” he said.

“When you look back to the last four games I think it’s just key moments where we’ve had the foot off the throat or let the opportunity for the other team to come back into the game.

“I think if we can win the key moments it’ll really change for us.”

Braid described the team’s support for Kirwan in succinct terms.

“He’s our coach and we’ve got his back for the whole season.”

Braid, who will lead the team against the Hurricanes due to the injury-enforced absence of Jerome Kaino, says the team weren’t far away from a top performance in their loss to the Lions last Saturday.

Four chances went begging over the try line.

“We got held up four times the weekend so obviously if you’re getting held up four times you should be walking it in other areas,” he said.

“I think the game plan’s alright, it’s just our decision making at certain times.

“I thought we probably did a few too many pick and goes which stopped our momentum, and then when our backs took the ball we didn’t have front foot ball.”

Kirwan said he and the team had been focusing on what they could control rather than speculation about his future.

“Results haven’t gone our way but that hasn’t stopped our belief in what we’re doing,” he said.

“The boys are disappointed obviously but there’s excitement around the place.

“We just need to get a win. What we’re doing is working, we just need to execute a bit better and if we can execute our game plan on Friday we’ll be in the hunt.”