The Queensland Reds will review their tackling technique to avoid further disciplinary issues after two players copped yellow cards in their Super Rugby defeat to the Blues.
Jordan Petaia and Taniela Tupou spent time in the sin-bin during Friday night’s loss in Auckland, reducing the Reds to 13 men in the first half and giving the hosts an opportunity to take control of the match.
While some felt Queensland were hard done by in both decisions, back-rower Caleb Timu said they must make sure referees and television match officials don’t have an excuse to brandish cards in the first place.
“If we tackled well and didn’t lift and didn’t dive at the ankles, we wouldn’t be in that situation,” Timu told reporters on Monday.
“We didn’t help our cause. We didn’t play the best footy.
“It’s on our part as well, not just the refs.
“Individually we need to work on that and be better so we don’t give those penalties away, and especially yellow cards, because it hurts us.”
The dual sin-binning means the Reds have now tallied seven yellow cards and one red in 14 matches, most of them for similar incidents.
Coach Brad Thorn was reluctant to admit his side had an issue with their tackling at the start of the year, when Scott Higginbotham and Lukhan Tui were both suspended for three weeks following incidents in their season-opener against the Melbourne Rebels.
But it appears a diagnosis has been made, albeit somewhat belatedly.
“Even this morning in our units meeting it was definitely mentioned because you can’t hide away from the fact that those kind of tackles were made,” Timu said.
“It’s just a work-on individually we need to get right and sharpen up, and we’ll do that.”
The Reds have lost nine of their last 10 matches but their last two assignments of this Super Rugby campaign are both at home – starting with Friday night’s clash with the Melbourne Rebels.
The Rebels must win at Suncorp Stadium to keep their faint finals hopes of topping the Australian conference alive, but may have blown their chances with their defeat to the NSW Waratahs at the weekend.
“They play quick footy, they’ve got a lot of weapons all around the park. They’re going to be very dangerous,” Timu said.
“We just have to be up to it defensively.”