Beauden Barrett and the Blues have been forced to make plenty of tackles in recent weeks. Photo / Getty
Beauden Barrett and the Blues have been forced to make plenty of tackles in recent weeks. Photo / Getty
Coach Leon MacDonald has warned the Blues that their defence is performing at an unsustainable rate – wary of the toll it is taking on the bodies of his players.
The Blues attack has been unconvincing for much of the season. When it is clicking, it's obvious as to whythey are considered title contenders, but those moments are too often sporadically spread between a whole lot of mediocrity.
Issues with discipline and maintaining possession have meant the Blues have had to work overtime in defence. In their past four matches alone, the Blues have had to make almost 300 tackles more than their opponents.
That issue was made clear in their win over the Western Force in Perth on Sunday morning, as they were forced to make almost 100 tackles more than the hosts (214 to 119), while only able to use 38 per cent of the possession.
So far, the Blues have managed to avoid serious injury on the back of their immense defensive workload, however MacDonald said they were lucky to have done so.
"I did say to them in the sheds, we don't want to keep doing this; it's going to take its toll. I think we've dodged a bit of a bullet on the injury front."
MacDonald noted the recent work of captain Dalton Papalii as a prime example of someone who is having to pick up some of the slack with his defensive work. It's an area where Papalii excels, both in tackling and forcing turnovers at the breakdown, but in recent weeks, MacDonald said the demand on players like Papalii has been too high.
In his last three outings – against the Force, Crusaders and Chiefs – Papalii's lowest tackle count has been 19.
"We don't want our skipper making that many tackles," MacDonald admitted. "It's not sustainable. Although we're really pleased and proud of what he can do defensively, we've got to be better because we're going to end just getting some of our key players injured if we're not smarter in the way we play the game."
Dalton Papalii has been a workhorse for the Blues. Photo / Photosport
For the second week in a row, the Blues failed to capitalise on some good moments with ball in hand, allowing the Force to have a chance to steal with result inside the dying minutes.
The Blues scored all of their points in the 22-18 win inside a 17-minute window in the first half, after which they were plagued by errors and discipline issues.
It's the second week in a row the side failed to put a team to the sword once they got into a groove, and it's an area MacDonald needs to see improved as they head into the business end of the season.
Remarkably, the Blues are riding a nine-game winning streak, so MacDonald said recent performances had to be taken in stride.
"The big thing for us is, when we get it right, we're looking really good, but we started stacking errors and giving momentum away," MacDonald said.
"The competition is too tight to do that to opposition. You're shooting yourself in the foot, and we did that. It's an area that we try and pride ourselves on, but the last few weeks in particular, we've let ourselves down on the front.
"It's a marathon, not a sprint. We'll take the win. We're disappointed internally, and we've already had a conversation as a team how we need to be better.
"That performance in the second half, it's not us, and it can't be us moving forward," he added of the Force game. "We've spoken about that. We're disappointed we let the foot off the throat. We let them off the ropes - just some little game management things we need to be better at.
"It's not all doom and gloom; we did enough to win the game, but only just and we don't want to be taking any more chances like that. We have to be better in a lot of areas."
