Rugby: The jagged blue line

Blues coach Pat Lam. Photo / Brett Phibbs

The yo-yo results chart needs to be mended, but Blues coach Pat Lam prefers to dwell on his team's rising performance graph.

He is encouraged by weekly gains but acknowledges there has to be much more consistency if the Blues are to make the Super 14 playoffs next month.

There was an unwanted Manhattan skyline symmetry about their win-loss record this season, said Lam, and an improvement in the quality of their play had to be matched by results in the second half of the competition.

The Blues sit in eighth position, but are only one win outside fourth place.

That position is held by the Stormers, who begin the New Zealand component of their Super 14 schedule on Saturday against the Blues at Eden Park.

"The graph I am looking at are performances on the field, where we are going up," Lam said. "Even after the 'L's [defeats] there has been an improvement in quality from the week before.

"We have made adjustments, which shows me we are learning, whereas last year the results plus the performances were massively up and down. This season the performance and what we are trying to do have been a lot more consistent."

Lam is optimistic, but the results chart which presently reads LWWLWLW must show a majority of wins in the next six games, otherwise the Blues will fail to reach the playoffs for the third successive season.

Injured international props Tony Woodcock and John Afoa are unlikely to recover for the Stormers game so Charlie Faumuina and Tevita Mailau will front the scrum again.

The Stormers have been one of the better defensive sides this season in the Super 14 but their attack has dried up lately and last round, they became the first side to lose to the Force.

"The danger is they have great players to hurt you, men like Brian Habana, Jaque Fourie, Ricky Januarie and Schalk Burger," Lam noted. "They are real quality players and there is no let-up in this competition.

"The Stormers are proud men who will deliver a huge physical battle."

The Blues had to manage their resources this week, ensure their sore troops recovered well and were fully prepared for Saturday's rumble at Eden Park. They were all learning how to deal with the demands of tough games every week.

Exciting centre Rene Ranger had been frustrated that he did not find as many gaps against the Bulls as he had in some previous games.

That was a taste of rugby at an even higher level, but if he was being double-teamed, that would open up space in other areas of the field.

Lam said the Blues were soaking up those sorts of lessons each week and they had been ramping up their workrate and concentration.

They had been pushing much harder in attack and defence and that showed against the Bulls when they scrambled extremely hard to save several try concessions.

"It showed me the character in comparison to last season when we might have been broken and there was not the determination to get back and cover," Lam said.

"That is the culture we want. On attack we need to be patient, reduce our errors and the chances will come."