Beauden Barrett was always likely to receive a frosty welcome to Wellington from Hurricanes fans when he ran onto the turf at Sky Stadium in a Blues uniform.

After spending so many years in the thick of things for the Hurricanes, this time around he was hoping to leave the home fans disappointed.

But while the uniform was different, the story stayed the same as Barrett couldn't stay out of the action – which wasn't always for the best.

Hurricanes midfielder Ngani Laumape wasted no time in putting the hurt on his former teammate - embarrassing the Blues fullback with a mix of speed and footwork, leaving Barrett in his wake just four minutes in.

Barrett, not to let an early lapse get him down, hit back almost immediately, dancing past Hurricanes prop Tyrel Lomax and sprinting away for a try of his own.

With little time to revel in his attacking work, Barrett was again taken to by Laumape, who ran over the top of an attempted tackle from Barrett with ease, only to be chopped down just short of the tryline by the Blues' cover defence.

It was a busy start for Barrett, who sustained a cut to his head during a frantic opening 20 minutes. However, he soon settled into his work.

But as these sorts of games tend to see, the returning figure was again in the thick of the action down the stretch. After kicking a conversion to level the scores at 22, Barrett could have put the Blues ahead by seven when hooker Kurt Eklund went over out wide in the 63rd minute, However, Barrett sprayed the kick wide.

It turned out to be a vital miss, as Hurricanes hooker Asafo Aumua was awarded a try under a mass of bodies with just minutes to go to again level the scores – with Jordie Barrett's conversion providing the winning points.