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Umaga bemoans referee leniency after Treeby tackle

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Blues fly-half Piers Francis leaves the field

Tana Umaga bemoaned the leniency of referee Jaco van Heerden and TMO Shaun Veldsman after Shaun Treeby escaped a yellow card for a tackle that knocked out Blues’ fly-half Piers Francis.

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Stormers centre Treeby caught Francis on the chin with a swinging arm in the second half of Friday’s Super Rugby clash at Newlands, and the resulting concussion makes him a major doubt for next week’s match against the Chiefs.

Van Heerden and Veldsman reviewed the incident and opted to only award a penalty, rather than sending the Treeby to the sin bin.

It was a decision that frustrated Blues coach Umaga and he will seek further clarification on why no further action was taken.

“From what’s happened in previous games you probably could say [it deserved a yellow card],” Umaga said.

“We’ve just got to deal with decisions that are made on the field.

“We knew going into this game the South African referees had been giving away a lot of yellow cards, and cards in general, so we talked a lot about being disciplined and we would expect that consistency throughout the whole game.

“I’ve got to go through the right channels in terms of reporting back – that’s what we’ll do to make sure we get some answers to some of the questions we have.

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“There were some tough calls that we felt went against us but that’s the way it goes.”

To add insult to injury the Blues finished the match with 14 men after Matt Duffie was shown two yellow cards as they were beaten 30-22 by the Stormers.

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Nickers 30 minutes ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

I thought we made a lot of progress against that type of defence by the WC last year. Lots of direct running and punching holes rather than using width. Against that type of defence I think you have to be looking to kick on first phase when you have front foot ball which we did relatively successfully. We are playing a lot of rugby behind the gain line at the moment. They are looking for those little interchanges for soft shoulders and fast ball or off loads but it regularly turns into them battering away with slow ball and going backwards, then putting in a very rushed kick under huge pressure.


JB brought that dimension when he first moved into 12 a couple of years ago but he's definitely not been at his best this year. I don't know if it is because he is being asked to play a narrow role, or carrying a niggle or two, but he does not look confident to me. He had that clean break on the weekend and stood there like he was a prop who found himself in open space and didn't know what to do with the ball. He is still a good first phase ball carrier though, they use him a lot off the line out to set up fast clean ball, but I don't think anyone is particularly clear on what they are supposed to do at that point. He was used really successfully as a second playmaker last year but I don't think he's been at that role once this year. He is a triple threat player but playing a very 1 dimensional role at the moment. He and Reiko have been absolutely rock solid on defence which is why I don't think there will be too much experimentation or changes there.

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