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Blues learn hard lesson

Early lessons of the need for discipline were hammered home to the Blues, by a Hurricanes side which has the greater history of indiscipline in key matches, in the Super 14 opener at North Harbour Stadium on Friday night.

Saturday, 13 February 2010

Sportal.co.nz

Early lessons of the need for discipline were hammered home to the Blues, by a Hurricanes side which has the greater history of indiscipline in key matches, in the Super 14 opener at North Harbour Stadium on Friday night.

Blues coach Pat Lam said there was a lot of frustration in his side's dressing room over the 20-34 loss because a lot of effort had been put in.

"Obviously it was a good first half with a couple of good tries [the Blues lead 20-12] but lack of discipline and some calls really put us on the back foot and the game just started to turn in the second half," he said.

The side had talked about reducing the penalties at halftime but within a minute of getting back on the field there was another one conceded. Lam said the side would have to look at what it was doing because it had not been penalised so heavily during its three warm-up games.

There were positive signs to come out of the match, including encouraging defence during the first half especially, but he said the side was having to defend too much in its own half.

"But 'D' is a lot easier when it is down the other end and we need to have a look at why we couldn't get out of our half and at some of the decisions that were made," he said.

Captain and hooker Keven Mealamu said from his queries to referee Stuart Dickinson the problems were occurring over the entry of players to the breakdown and tacklers not rolling away.

But he said it was up to the players to adapt to the rulings of referees and adapt quickly.

Lam said the rulings by the referees were what he supported but he wanted consistency, and in saying that he wasn't saying Dickenson had been inconsistent.

The Blues camp would go through its checking process to assess where the side was going wrong and they would also get feedback from the referee as well.

"We have to tidy up that area because it certainly cost us tonight," he said.

Mealamu said the intercept try conceded to Hosea Gear had been a knock-back for the side, but the Blues needed to be more resilient to come back from something like that.

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