Super Rugby: Why the Blues offered coach Tana Umaga a one-year deal

Blues head coach Tana Umaga. Photosport

The ball is in Tana Umaga's court as to whether he will remain Blues head coach past the 2019 Super Rugby season.

Umaga's reign has been extended until the end next season, with the likes of Wales coach Warren Gatland and Ireland mentor Joe Schmidt looming as possible options beyond that.

Blues CEO Michael Redman told the Radio Sport Breakfast that Umaga had put a lot of good things in place at the Blues.

"Tana is just finishing his first three-year term and everyone is aware, and he acknowledges that the outcomes at this point are not where he or we would want them to be. But at the same time we think that experience has been valuable and hard-earned and there's still more contribution he can make – and for him and initial one-year extension," Redman said.

"In that time a lot of good things have been put in place both by Tana and the club. We're certainly very happy with the squad of players, so in a perfect world we would have had those outcomes by now but there have been a number of extenuating circumstances, and in this year in particular if you think about some of the injury tolls we've had, which we haven't been able to cope with, we think four years is long enough to be able to understand whether Tana is the man to lead us further. And hope he does."

In terms of looking at overseas options for the head coaching role from 2020 on, the likes of Schmidt, Gatland and Vern Cotter are tied into their current roles until at least the end of 2019.

Redman said if there was a vacancy for the head role, they'd be speaking to everybody of interest. He added he isn't foreshadowing a vacancy and hopes there won't be one, as it means 2019 won't have been the season they want.

The Blues have only won three games this year and are all but out of the playoff race.

"I feel fortunate to have been given the opportunity," Umaga yesterday. "I understand that on face value right now it is probably not something which is seen as the most deserving.

"I think everyone in an employment contract would like longer than they have. This is a results-driven industry that we are in let's not get away from that and face value, we are not where we want to be.

"I want to show I have the ability to take the club to where I want it to be."