Rugby: Shabby loss makes Blues' job much harder

Blues forward Charlie Faumuina loses the ball over the line during the loss to the Reds. Photo / Getty Images

It was disastrous, but not fatal. But the shabby loss to the Reds has made the Blues' task of reaching the Super 14 playoffs a lot more difficult.

A flurry of 19 unanswered points for the Blues in the last 17 minutes obscured the scope of the defeat which was even more galling as they hosted one of the competition tailgunners at North Harbour Stadium.

The Reds played strongly, they used the conditions much better, five-eighths Berrick Barnes piloted them round the field expertly and they had more cohesion than the Blues to earn their 31-24 victory. It was embarrassing enough to lose to one of the series' stragglers. It was even worse to be trailing 31-5 late in the match.

The power outage which shut down half the ground floodlights after three minutes was disruptive but the resumption after an hour should have been a reprieve for the Blues, who otherwise would have had to accept two points for an incompleted match.

Normally that would have rankled as they hunted for the playoffs against one of the series stragglers. But the way they tried to ramp up their satisfaction post-game said a great deal about Gopperth's converted try after the whistle which allowed the Blues to escape with two bonus points.

"Obviously we were very disappointed and it just shows again that attitude goes a long way," Blues coach Pat Lam said pointedly. "I suppose the way we fronted, we deserved what we got."

That will be of great concern for Lam as he surveys the physical and mental debris after this defeat, with Chris Lowrey badly injuring his left knee while fellow looseforwards Justin Collins and Josh Blackie were also injured and replaced.

The widespread damage spread to the crowd, with one irate spectator haranguing Lam in the coach's box as he left before the final whistle.

"Refund our money, that's shit," the man yelled as he brandished his tickets before he was encouraged to leave.

Lam later said he had no problems with the preparation, gameplan or training in the lead-in to the match. His side had performed well in the past fortnight but this time they used the wrong options and made way too many errors.

The number of missed tackles was unacceptable. Those mistakes were very damaging and would need huge improvement for the away game with the Hurricanes on Friday.

Equally curious was the pre-ordained idea about using first five-eighths Tasesa Lavea for the opening half then Jimmy Gopperth in the second.

With the Blues getting few chances to play in the opening spell, as regular skipper Keven Mealamu observed, Lavea had limited opportunities, into the wind, to make much impact. Then he was gone at the break with Gopperth moving into his position.

Lam has consistently backed every player in his squad this season and showed that by resting Mealamu and Jerome Kaino from this game because of their injury niggles. But alternating his five-eighths - especially for half a game each as he did at North Harbour - does not seem a system to encourage confidence and consistency.

The coach said sorting out his side's attitude was the key to their bouncing back on Friday against the Hurricanes.

"We have to get back into it. Our systems do not change from early on to this time. It is about guys getting in and doing their jobs, so back into it, we go through the same process. Win or lose you review the game then work out the strategy we need to beat the Hurricanes and we get back to work."