Rugby: Easy run home will help Blues

Michael Hobbs was one of the bright lights for the Blues on Friday night. Photo / Getty Images

A swag of bonus points has enabled the Blues to reach their season mid-point with more reason for optimism than perhaps their performances merit.

Defeat to the Waratahs on Friday - the first win New South Wales have posted at Eden Park in Super Rugby history - was the Blues' fourth loss in seven weeks and yet there they are clinging to an elevated position on the table.

This week they rest before embarking on a home run against the Lions, Highlanders and Reds.

That's a soft trot and one from which they have to take maximum points.

Their margin for error is all but gone now they have lost four games. The six bonus points they have scrambled has kept them on the cusp of contention but the Blues need to deliver something more compelling if they are to sit in such lofty places with any conviction.

Top of the list to be remedied are the "dead zones" they keep drifting into, where the concentration slips and they all but toss the game away.

Even when the Blues were being drilled by the Chiefs, there was still this underlying sense they weren't out of it right up until they let Liam Messam charge through untouched direct from a kick off in the final quarter.

They had the ball, they had territory but they were guilty of the sloppiest errors that gift-wrapped a bundle of points for the Chiefs.

It was the same against the Waratahs, albeit on a vastly reduced scale. Just as they were starting to build the pressure a loose pass by Jerome Kaino was picked off too easily by Luke Burgess. One dizzy moment and that was the ball game.

Presumably, if the concentration can be better maintained, some of the more glaring defensive lapses will be fixed. A heroic effort against the Stormers was evidence aplenty that the Blues can hold their structure and bury the bodies. Something has gone wrong in recent weeks, though, as there have been too many breaches.

Some of that has been caused by poor individual execution. More of it, however, is the result of the defensive line not sliding as smoothly as it should.

That technical inefficiency alludes to there being a little uncertainty and lack of confidence. That hesitancy manifested itself in some poor decision-making in the final minutes against the Waratahs where three times the ball was kicked away with a converted try needed to win.

It is impossible to believe that the coaching duo of Pat Lam and Shane Howarth, who were both such astute footballers, sat demurely as the ball was given up so cheaply and needlessly in those critical last minutes.

They have given this side licence to use their noggins and it would have concerned them that both Jimmy Gopperth's and Taniela Moa's instincts were to kick, rather than run.

Gopperth's last act of an aimless cross-field punt to no one capped a difficult night for him and Tasesa Lavea is likely to be re-introduced if he's fit. It's not that Gopperth has been disastrous but the backline hasn't quite clicked yet and maybe the injection of Lavea, who takes the ball flat, will spark things.

Michael Hobbs deserves an extended run in the No 12 jersey and his straight running could work well in partnership with Lavea.

The 21-year-old second-five made an immediate impact when he came off the bench on Friday night. He poses more of a direct threat than Jamie Helleur and the Blues need their inside backs to fix defences to stop them drifting straight to the danger men.

The maturity and contribution of Hobbs has been one of the major positives of the campaign so far, the other being the performances of Chris Lowrey who was again industrious and effective against the Waratahs.

He's got a big engine, a willingness to get stuck in and a range of softer skills that make him an intriguing prospect.

With Tony Woodcock expected to be fit to play the Lions and Rudi Wulf in contention also, there is no sense of despair from Lam.

"We would have been in a better position if we had won, but we've just got to get back to winning rugby. We're not giving up.

"We've got a long way to go but we are certainly better than when we started," he said.

Blues 22 (A. Tuitavake, O. Auva'a, M. Hobbs tries; J. Gopperth pen, 2 cons). NSW Waratahs 27 (D. Halangahu, L. Burgess, T. Polota-Nau tries; Halangahu 2 pens, 3 cons).