Blues may rue scrum numbers

Right now, the Blues players will be wondering where their next victory is coming from, so it’s probably no surprise coach Tana Umaga has refused to secondguess a crucial decision which may have contributed to the Chiefs’ late winning try.

It came in the dying moments in Hamilton, the Blues, up 19-14 with seven minutes remaining, showing rare grit and determination to fight back against the Chiefs, only to concede a penalty try for collapsing an undermanned defensive scrum.

The automatic seven points awarded to the Chiefs knocked the stuffing from Umaga’s men for a 21-19 win but the question remains; would the visitors' scrum have gone backwards so quickly had they sent a back into the set piece to replace sinbinned lock Josh Goodhue?

The Chiefs, strangely off-key after an excellent start, would have attacked the scrum regardless, but another Blues body might have made a difference.

For Umaga, it was not worth dwelling on, although a message might be sent in private when this defeat, their fifth in six games, is analysed. For Umaga and the Blues, the bottom line is they are 14th, with only the winless Sunwolves below them.

After the highs of a few weeks ago when they came back so brilliantly to beat the Lions in Johannesburg, they are now truly down in the dumps, their playoff ambitions once again in tatters.

“Hindsight’s a great thing,” said Umaga when asked afterwards about the crucial seven-man scrum. “On the field, they talked about chucking someone in there but made the decision not to go with it. You’ve got to trust those guys to do that. They’ll probably think ‘would that have made a difference after the way they were dominating?’ It’s a tough one.”

— Patrick McKendry