Emiliano Boffelli of the Jaguares competes for a high ball against Matt Duffie of the Blues. Photo / Photosport.co.nz
Emiliano Boffelli of the Jaguares competes for a high ball against Matt Duffie of the Blues. Photo / Photosport.co.nz
The agony deepens for the Blues and Tana Umaga but the beleaguered coach continues to truck on very much business as usual.
A loss to the Jaguares would never have been in his thinking six months ago, but the Blues have descended so far and so fast that Umaga appearedto be relatively unshaken when it happened.
He was clearly miffed about the side's second half performance and their failure to kick long and put the ball behind the Jaguares.
"We felt we had done enough going into the wind and played good-into-the-wind rugby and then we had another plan when we turned around with it," he said. "But we failed to execute.
"We had to park that first 40. We don't want to put on anyone as there are lots of players who need to understand the plan. There are key players and people who need to make those decisions and I don't believe they did."
Umaga's preference has always been to deal with his players privately, to work on their faults behind the scenes rather than publicly bag them.
His continued loyalty and effective non-critical stance is arguably heaping more public pressure on himself as fans look for answers and reasons why their club is heading in the wrong direction.
Nicolas Sanchez of the Jaguares celebrates the victory. Photo / Anthony Au-Yeung / www.photosport
But however much pressure is building on Umaga, he's not showing any signs of cracking or being overwhelmed by it and again, he hinted that he's at the Blues for the long term.
"I have got great faith in what we are doing here and not just on the rugby side of it," he said. "We know we are underperforming as a whole so that is a challenge and we live for the challenge. We are not getting it on the right on the field at the moment but we are not far away.
