Blues coach Pat Lam has questioned the decision to appoint 'inexperienced' referee Garratt Williamson for his team's Super 14 match against the Waratahs in Sydney.
The Blues lost the match 39-32 and were blown up for obstruction twice at crucial times in match that we eventually decided by a 95m intercept from Lachie Turner.
Lam has pulled no punches and says that Williamson favoured the Waratahs and that the referee was getting too much input from James Leckie and Paul Marks who were on the sideline.
"Before the game probably our biggest concern was just the experience of the referee going in to a game like that," Lam said.
"And there were some big calls made or some calls not made on both sides."
"But certainly there was a lot of chat from the assistant referees and when you've got two guys with experience and one that's less experienced in the middle ... it's a little bit different but that's just the way it goes."
"We were just concerned a bit about the amount of talk directed at our team from the referee, and I'd say there was a lot more coming to all our guys."
The loss leaves the Blues with 15 points in ninth place which is adrift of the fourth-placed Waratahs who have not had the bye yet.
Lam praised his team but said that the manner in which they lost is hard to take.
"It was a gut wrencher that last try (to Turner)," he said.
"We were pretty much about to score in the corner I'd say, so to see Lachie Turner go up the other end and do it that way it's tough but the boys came back and tried to get it in the end, but we probably just made too many mistakes today."
"It's three games now, Hurricanes intercept, Crusader intercept and the Tahs intercept so, we're going to have to look at that."
"It just changes the whole flow of the game but if we'd nailed that I was confident with 10 points ahead a five or so minutes that we could shut it down but it just wasn't to be."
Even though Lam is disappointed with the loss, he is confident the Blues can turn things around as their next three matches are at Eden Park
"We've made big strides from last year, we could easily be here undefeated as you go through it and it's just little things that are costing us," he told Sportal.
"We've shown a lot of character, we've gone behind in games and the way we've fought back (is promising)."
"But we've just got to get back now, we've got three games at home and we've just got to nail those."
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