Tana takes the blame for the Tokyo travesty
Blues coach Tana Umaga has shouldered the bulk of the blame after his side finished the Super Rugby season with a shock loss to the Sunwolves.
With both teams out of playoff contention, the last-placed Japanese side scored eight tries to three and ran the woeful visitors ragged on their way to a commanding 48-21 victory on a scorching afternoon in Tokyo yesterday.
The Blues simply couldn’t live with the pace and ambition the Filo Tiatiacoached team played with, wilting under waves of unrelenting pressure as the mercury reached a furnace-like 42 degrees.
While he acknowledged the attitude of Sunwolves had been far better, Umaga felt his decision to take his team to Japan 12 days early in an attempt to acclimatise to the sweltering temperatures had played a significant role. ‘‘I have to look at myself before I start looking at the players and that performance,’’ a downcast Blues coach said.
‘‘It’s how I prepare them during the week, what I have done to really help them and have I helped them enough.
‘‘I can’t play but I can have an influence with how they prepare and motivating them.
‘‘We did what we thought was right but clearly it wasn’t.
‘‘We can’t go pointing fingers at players and what they are doing, we’ve got to look at ourselves and what can we take out of this.’’
Although they were already resigned to finishing fifth and last in the New Zealand conference, lack of motivation was not an excuse for the Auckland-based franchise.
The contest was the 99th and last for the Blues for tighthead prop Charlie Faumuina, who is joining French club Toulouse, while rangy loose-forward Steven Luatua was making his 76th appearance before heading for England to link up with Bristol.
Umaga said not sending the departing duo off in the appropriate manner was the hardest thing to take, followed closely by the feeling it left them with after an overall campaign that had also included seven wins and, at times, some promising signs.
‘‘It’s that old adage that everyone remembers your last performance and it’s not a good one for us going into the end of the season.
‘‘The best thing for us is to look at ourselves ... it’s definitely one we’ll debrief, we need to take the learnings.
‘‘It’s also just a realisation that we are where we are at the moment because of these inconsistencies we are showing, not being able to get on the front foot in games we’re actually meant to do well in.
‘‘That is attitude, preparation and mindset. And we’ve got to keep pushing on that.’’
It wasn’t all doom and gloom from the Blues coach.
He still assessed the entire season as a step forward from last year and felt it was important one poor performance did not stop them from looking ahead in a positive fashion.
‘‘I’m positive in what I can do and confident in my ability, I have to be otherwise I shouldn’t be here.
‘‘I’ll see that [final year] out and who knows what happens after that.
‘‘We all realise this is a results driven game.
‘‘As long as we are improving hopefully I keep putting those opportunities up for myself.’’ Chiefs face the long haul trip to Cape Town - pB2