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Vern Cotter: 'I've asked for a defibrillator to be put in the coach's box'
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Blues head coach Vern Cotter has jokingly suggested that the Super Rugby Pacific franchise needs to upgrade its coaching box facilities, after his side made “hard work” of their Friday night clash against the Highlanders.
The Blues were leading the contest for long periods of the contest at Eden Park in Auckland, and were leading 47-26 in the 72nd minute, when a winning bonus point looked all but locked in.
Two late tries to former Blues players Soane Vikena and Tanielu Tele’a for the Highlanders tightened the gap to only seven, leaving the home side’s coaches with five nerve-wracking minutes as they looked to close out the round ten matchup.
Cotter, who last month announced he will leave the Blues for this week’s opponents, the Queensland Reds, said that his side “hung on” in the end.
“I’ve asked for a defibrillator to be put into the coaches box. I was just running through the scenario we had for how many minutes before we got AJ Lam back in extra time,” Cotter told media in Auckland.
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“But no, the boys hung in. Hung on, made the evening difficult for ourselves at times.
“But the Highlanders are a smart team, and when you get two yellow cards, and then the turning point is a maul where you’re dominating 50 meters up the paddock. Then a lack of accuracy means that the balls back in their hands, and they score.”
Despite claiming the victory to stay in third place, Cotter labelled the most disappointing part of the performance as the decision-making by his side.
“I mean, it’s something that you have to have a good look at and I’ll just try and put context around it. I just think that some of the decisions weren’t good. I thought in the first half our kicking game was poor. I think if we lock in and decide we want an objective and go for it, I think we’ll be okay.
“I just think we floated in and out at times, and you pay for those inaccuracies. It disappointing, and like I say there will be some good, honest conversations moving forward.”
The 64-year-old departing head coach said that even when they had the bonus point with ten minutes to go, he felt like his side was holding on rather than searching for the killer blow.
“We weren’t attentive enough there, and then they scored. So it was always going to be one of those games, I felt even when we had the bonus point, I felt that we were only just holding on in there, really.
“But the context of that is we got three guys back, and they hadn’t played for a while, and we got them out there plus we had guys that are playing their first year at the club, that are getting experience as well.”
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