The Blues have made one injury-forced change to their starting line-up to face Super Rugby neighbours the Chiefs on Saturday, with All Blacks prop Charlie Faumuina out for up to eight weeks.

Faumuina strained his right calf in the 30-27 defeat to the Waratahs in Sydney last weekend.

He has been replaced at tighthead by Angus Ta’avao, with Ofa Tu’ungafasi coming into the reserves.

Coach Sir John Kirwan has resisted adding All Blacks hooker Keven Mealamu to the bench for the match against the defending champions in Mt Maunganui.

Mealamu joined up the Blues last week after an extended summer break and Kirwan said there were thoughts about putting him in the match-day 22.

However, he needed to be sure that Mealamu could get through almost a full match in case there was an early injury.

“He probably needs one more week of training before he’s ready,” Kirwan said.

“He wasn’t happy,” he quipped.

After their impressive start to the season with two wins in the first fortnight, the Blues have dropped their last two matches.

Kirwan said his young squad needed to release the shackles and get back to playing their “high tempo, high skilled, high impact game”.

“We’ve been letting ourselves down from the skill point of view and we haven’t been able to get a flow on,” he said.

“And I think we’re getting a little bit worried about the whole event we’re in, where we just need to express ourselves and play.”

Blues: Charles Piutau, Frank Halai, Rene Ranger, Francis Saili, George Moala, Chris Noakes, Piri Weepu, Peter Saili, Luke Braid, Steven Luatua, Ali Williams (capt), Culum Retallick, Angus Ta’avao, James Parsons, Tom McCartney. Reserves: Quentin MacDonald, Ofa Tu’ungafasi, Anthony Boric, Brendon O’Connor, Jamison Gibson-Park, Baden Kerr, Jackson Willison.