Rugby: Blues' bad luck piles up for Lam

Blues head coach Pat Lam. Photo / Richard Robinson

It might sound like the last of the summer whine, but the Blues are feeling hard done by ahead of tomorrow's clash with the Hurricanes.

If it wasn't hard enough being at the bottom of the New Zealand Conference looking up, they have to deal with an "inconsistent" judiciary, an unfair schedule and a grim medical prognosis for one of their best players.

It was the citing commissioners that coach Pat Lam trained his sights on early. Lam would rather have abrasive flanker Luke Braid available than not, but concedes that the commissioner was just doing his job when he referred the flanker for striking.

What Lam cannot accept is that while Braid is doing three weeks on the naughty step, Hurricanes hooker Dane Coles is free to walk the streets after admitting to a similar offence.

These are desperate times for a Blues side that has lost three of its opening four matches, but even still it is difficult not to find a measure of sympathy for Lam in this instance.

Before the season started Sanzar made a big song and dance about how they were aiming for more consistency in their judicial processes, but Coles' escaping scot free after a blatant punch to the head of a prone Bronson Murray would suggest they have a way to go.

"We're really disappointed with the consistency of the citing commission," Lam said. "To have Dane Coles spit it out there this week and happily admit what we did ... we all saw it.

"Luke's one was really innocuous so we're pretty gutted by that."

Sanzar has three citing commissioners - Steve Hinds, Scott Nowland and Freek Burger - who refer incidents to duty judicial officers.

Braid was suspended by duty judicial officer Mike Heron for striking the Stormers' Nizaam Carr in the 62nd minute of their 17-27 loss.

"The footage showed Braid struck the Stormers player twice, the first with his forearm to the back of the neck, the second with a part-open hand to the head," Heron found.

An incident involving Coles was referred to the citing commissioner but was not deemed to have met the red-card threshold. However, that was for a ruck earlier in the match and was not the punch to Murray's face.

"The citing commission has to look at themselves there," Lam said. "All you ask for is fairness. So we've got one guy out for three weeks and one guy who is playing.

"The citing commissioners have got to do a job. The one in South Africa picked it up and Luke has to face the consequences; whereas the one in Wellington, I'm not sure what he was looking at."

Adding to Lam's sense of injustice is the fact that the Blues have a short turnaround on their return from their two-match tour of South Africa.

"Every team that comes back from Africa gets the Saturday game," he said. "We get the Friday game, which is tough."

They will be playing without Isaia Toeava against the Hurricanes and for the foreseeable future.

Blues doctor Stephen Kara says the All Black utility faces six months on the sidelines if they take the surgery option to fix a long-standing stress fracture in his hip.

"This is a recurring injury that has most likely been present since the original diagnosis in May of 2011 which failed to heal with non-surgical, conservative treatment ... This means that surgery might now have to be an option, something Isaia and the medical team will discuss with a specialist."

Toeava is expected to be out of rugby for three months, twice that if surgery is undertaken.

"I've had a rough run with this hip. It was painful last year but it seemed it might have come right during the break after the World Cup, but that wasn't the case and I have been struggling with it this season."

With a raft of unavailables including Toeava, Braid, Keven Mealamu, Rene Ranger, Jerome Kaino, Anthony Boric and George Moala, Lam has been forced to field a makeshift team against the Hurricanes.

Still, adversity can be binding. It needs to be as the dreaded phrase "must-win" is starting to enter the lexicon. "We know that," Lam said. "We have to get some performances out there."

BLUES

Eden Park, tomorrow, 7.35pm

Lachie Munro
David Raikuna
Benson Stanley
Ma' Nonu
Rudi Wulf
Piri Weepu
Alby Mathewson
Brad Mika
Daniel Braid (c)
Chris Lowrey
Ali Williams
Liaki Moli
Charlie Faumuina
Tom McCartney
Tony Woodcock

Blues: James Parsons, Tevita Mailau, Filo Paulo, Sean Polwart, Gareth Anscombe, Michael Hobbs, Hadleigh Parkes.

HURRICANES

Andre Taylor
Cory Jane
Conrad Smith (c)
Tim Bateman
Julian Savea
Beauden Barrett
TJ Perenara
Victor Vito
Jack Lam
Faifili Levave
Jason Eaton
Jeremy Thrush
J. Toomaga-Allen
Dane Coles
B. May/M. Bent

Hurricanes: Motu Matu'u, Michael Bent/Tristan Moran, James Broadhurst, Brad Shields, Chris Eaton, Daniel Kirkpatrick, Charlie Ngatai.