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Blues assistant coach Tana Umaga puts pen to paper in new deal with franchise

By Online Editors

01 Sep 2020

(Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)

Blues defence coach Tana Umaga has extended his stay at the franchise until the end of the 2021 Super Rugby season.

This brings Umaga into line with the rest of the Blues coaching group of head coach Leon MacDonald, forwards coach Tom Coventry and backs/skills coach Daniel Halangahu.

Umaga joined the Blues as head coach in 2016 before stepping into the defence coaching role for a two-year deal in 2019, with the additional year ensuring his contract comes up for renewal alongside the rest of the Blues coaching team after the 2021 season.

“I enjoy my role at the Blues and I’m really pleased to carry on next year. This means I am aligned with the other coaches and I can continue to work with this maturing playing squad,” said Umaga.

“We have a strong coaching group and we enjoy feeding off each other as well as the benefit of some open and honest discussions about our game plans.”

Umaga’s work as defence coach resulted in the Blues topping the Super Rugby Aotearoa statistics for tackles made and number of dominant tackles. He has also contributed significantly to the team culture.

“I am thrilled that Tana will be staying with us. He has done a superb job in the development of this team as a defensive unit,” said MacDonald.

“Defence is the cornerstone of our success, not just with the alignment and communication, but our goal-line scramble defence was outstanding in terms of our system and strength of will.

“A big part of that was the character and sense of purpose that Tana has played a major part in developing with this squad.”

The coaching group are completing the review of all aspects of the season and have offered support to Northland, North Harbour and Auckland Mitre-10 Cup teams.

– Blues Rugby

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Comments on RugbyPass

RedWarrior 5 minutes ago

Andy Farrell faces up to concerning Irish 'trends' ahead of Fiji

There is nothing particularly significant about Ireland in this regard compared to other Tier 1 nations. To look at 'strategy' for illegal play its best to see what teams push boundaries with new laws. SA have milked two tries at ruck block downs. The strategy is to charge the first few before the ball is out at about 4 seconds but pull out and put up hands in reigned apology. The referees usually allow the scum half to clear without awarding a penalty in this scenario. The problem with that being that the scrumhalf is now taking over 5 seconds through no fault of his own. Having achieved a few slow balls > 5s , the SA forward can now pick a scrum to charge dead on 5s. Now if the scrum half waits, he will concede a penalty, as we saw against Scotland. With the new rule in place, any early charge should result in an immediate penalty.

SA also got an offside block against England which was pivotal again after a couple of 'apologetic' offside aborted charges forcing England to clear slowly.

2 Go to comments

RedWarrior 21 minutes ago

Ex-All Black accuses Ireland's Jack Crowley of 'disgusting' act in Argentina win

Yep, you're not the sharpest tool in the shed are you?

45 Go to comments

Mark 32 minutes ago

Fin Baxter wades into debate over the England losing streak

Totally agree, and with the Greenwood comment you have hit the nail on the head, England have never managed to replace Greenwood.

And although it's a simple analogy if you look at today's England side, how many of them would make a combined world xv?.

As you allude to, they are I'm afraid mediocre.

3 Go to comments

Lisa Decker 35 minutes ago

Ex-All Black accuses Ireland's Jack Crowley of 'disgusting' act in Argentina win

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45 Go to comments

Werner 38 minutes ago

Let's be real about these All Blacks

I dare say it's an "everyone against the ABs" scrapbook. Only time I've seen him give half a compliment is when he talks about other teams beating the Springboks. Even in this article he puts the Argentina win in NZ down to the ABs being bad rather than the Argentines playing well, which they have been doing all year round.

49 Go to comments

AA 48 minutes ago

Fin Baxter wades into debate over the England losing streak

Agreed. Borthwick will have to write a new excuse book soon .

I have looked at the two world cup final teams from 2003 and 2020.

2003 team scored 187 tries between them in 389 caps

2020 team scored 113 tries between them in 473 caps. As you can see a huge disparity in scoring rate. Only Johnny May with 36 tries in 78 caps scored a higher amount of tries. Elliot Daly comes close but the rest are frankly very poor.

Farrell and Ford scored a pathetic 20 tries between them in a combined 210 caps.

There again , the 2003 team did have Wilko and Greenwood etc whereas 2020 team had Ford and Farrell .

So much people saying that Fords strength is of bringing others into the game .

Really. The figures totally disprove that notion .

It has been mentioned elsewhere that we have accepted mediocrity far too often and the figures would indicate that players are or have been picked far too often without performing .

3 Go to comments

Alex 56 minutes ago

Let's be real about these All Blacks

Not disputing that NZ are ahead of Eng. Also not saying Eng are unlucky (though clearly the tone of the article is not that the ABs were unlucky but that they 'should have' won). Your team are looking great and are on the up. I just felt that Pundits have argued Eng 'should have' won the first test against the ABs, when it's more nuanced than that, and very fine margins determine results that Eng didn't get right. Same applies, therefore, to NZ and other nations. Ben Smith though doesn't seem to see it that way. To be clear: I'm not saying I agree with the 'should haves', but more that I take issue with the phrasing.

Good to see your respect for other nations is so strong! Proper rugby fan you are!!!

49 Go to comments

RedWarrior 59 minutes ago

Did Rassie Erasmus miss a trick with his latest South Africa squad?

GB is England, Scotland, Wales. They are the 3 constituent countries in Great Britain. Ergo playing only those three countries is a tour of GB. The difference between GB and the UK is Northern Ireland. It's not a huge deal to be accurate and call places by their correct name. But please refrain from your idiotic attempts to BS that GB=UK. It doesn't.

52 Go to comments

RedWarrior 1 hour ago

'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'