Super Rugby: Tana Umaga has faith Blues defence can find a way to stop free-flowing points

Blues coach Tana Umaga believes his side can turn around their defensive woes. Photo / Photosport

'Scoring 40 is good but leaking 60 is not" — the Blues' latest loss was easy to summarise for coach Tana Umaga but will be more difficult to do something about.

It's a simple concept — to win a match, you must score more points than your opponent, and Umaga knows his side need to defend better.

The Blues suffered an embarrassing 63-40 defeat at home on Saturday night against the Sharks, with the hosts allowing the South African side to run in six tries and kick seven penalty goals.

The Blues ran in six tries of their own but the penalties proved costly. It's been a similar case all season for the Blues — scoring the points is fine, but keeping them out has been an issue.

Through five matches, the side have scored 153 points, just eight fewer than the pace-setting Hurricanes. However, they've conceded 203 and have the second-worst points differential in the competition, with their -50 better only than the Sunwolves on -108.

"We know we can score points, it's how we stop them. We've got to make sure we're really good at that and really focus on that," Umaga said after the match.

"We've got to get it right. It's within us, there's no doubt about it, I have total faith in that."

The Blues have fallen to a 1-4 record through their first five matches of 2018 and while they still have 11 to play, their campaign is hanging by a fraying thread.

Blues captain James Parsons said the side were "extremely confident" heading into the match against the Sharks, which made the loss even more frustrating.

The Blues leaked points early to the Sharks and trailed 26-7 at the break. It was the third time in as many weeks and fourth time in five games that the Blues had allowed their opponents to score more than 20 points in the opening 40 minutes.

Parsons said that kind of start just wasn't good enough in such a tough competition.

"We can't give teams that much of a headstart ... we've got to find that 80-minute performance."

"Our systems don't need to change, we just need to execute them better.

"I sound like a broken record and I won't apologise for it because at the end of the day, that's all we've got to do."

The Blues will look to turn it around this week ahead of a meeting with the Chiefs in Hamilton on Saturday night.