Rugby: Common sense goes astray in sixth loss

Referee Jaco Peyper yellow-carded Blues skipper Jerome Kaino for a high tackle on Waratah Dave Dennis. Photo / Getty Images

Decision to yellow-card Kaino ruled out any chance of Blues comeback in final minutes.

It's after nights like these that John Kirwan, rather than resigning himself to going back to the drawing board, must be tempted to smash the thing to smithereens and start on something else like an old stone tablet that he could also use to knock some sense into his players.

Once again, this match against the Waratahs at Sydney's Allianz Stadium, won 23-11 by the home side, didn't go his way. Once again the Blues made it difficult on themselves.

One can only imagine what goes through a coach's mind when, facing the sixth loss of the season, he watches poor decisions by match officials combined with players throwing possession away as they attempt the near impossible when common sense would suit so much better.

Despite all this the Blues coach was again reasonably positive in his message to the media after the match, but a touch of fatalism crept in at the end when he was asked whether he would rest any of his All Blacks for the next match against the Chiefs in Hamilton on Saturday - another tough assignment.

Kirwan's answer was no. He added: "I can't afford to rest them and if the season is lost then I don't have to worry too much after that."

It's the first time his positive facade has slipped, but Kirwan had every right to be angry at a whole lot of things, including the decision to yellow-card his skipper, Jerome Kaino, for a high tackle on his Waratahs opposite Dave Dennis which looked bad only because of an accidental head clash.

Once again it was a case of the crowd influencing a match official's thinking. The booing forced referee Jaco Peyper to refer it to the television match official who recommended a yellow card, a poor decision which effectively ruled out a Blues comeback in the final nine minutes.

"Bemused is a good word," said Kirwan.

"I didn't think there was much in it really and the TMO has made that decision so there's not a lot we can do about it. Playing with one man less for the last nine or 10 minutes when we're still in the game is not easy.

"We can't win a trick at the moment. We're under pressure and the boys are playing with heart and commitment but we've just got to cut out some of our discipline errors and make sure we execute better."

Peter Betham's late converted try put a gloss on the result for the Waratahs, who could consider themselves lucky the TMO found in their favour for Nick Phipps' try from what looked like a Michael Hooper forward pass.

Their next points, a penalty after Peyper penalised Kaino for "crawling" with the ball under the posts, were also fortunate for them.

That closed the gap 11 minutes after the break to 11-10 to the Blues, after Francis Saili went over in what was the visiting team's virtually only foray in the Waratahs' 22m area.

It was one-way traffic as far as the scoring was concerned after that, with the Blues making error after error as they sought to magic their way out of another tight spot.

After a rusty start, new first-five Dan Bowden showed some nice touches. It's one of the only positives Kirwan can take into another difficult week.