Braid: Lessons in tough season

Blues loose forward Luke Braid believes he has gained valuable experience from his teams' awful season.

The younger of the two Braid brothers was thrust into the captaincy role while Keven Mealamu was injured and had more than his fair share of post-match interviews as the losing skipper.

However, the youngster has taken the positives out of the difficult campaign and seen it as a massive learning curve in his career.

"It's been pretty beneficial for me actually," Braid told Sportal.co.nz.

"I've been thrown around the paddock position-wise and thrown the captaincy when we were not going really well, it's been a huge learning curve for me and I've come out the other side pretty good."

The 23-year-old has been happy to hand the captaincy back to fit again Mealamu, but has developed a taste for the leadership role.

"It's going to keep moving my game forward being involved in the leadership, but Kevy [Mealamu] is going to be sticking around for a few more years so I'll just learn of him," he said.

Braid also added that seeing no fewer than 16 of his teammates pick up injuries during the grueling campaign has given him new found appreciation for being injury-free.

"You can't really take the season for granted because you could get injured at any point."