The depleted Blues had further misery piled on them with the news that flank Luke Braid has been cited for foul play in his team's 17-27 loss to the Stormers at Newlands on Friday.

Braid has been charged for striking Stormers replacement Nizaam Carr with his elbow and forearm, while on the ground.

The citing commissioner believes the incident meets the 'red card threshold' for foul play.

The under strength Blues produced a gallant second half comeback, but left their run too late as they were defeated by a clinical Stormers in Cape Town.

Trailing 3-24-3 early in the second half, following a lacklustre opening stanza, the Blues finally discovered their attacking mojo and scored two well constructed tries to get within seven points of their opponents with a quarter of an hour remaining.

But the Stormers managed to hold the Blues out, with their impressive forward pack out-muscling them at the scrum to starve the visitors of any quality possession.

The Blues now return home to Auckland having won just one of their opening four matches to sit at the bottom of the New Zealand Conference on five points.

Missing nine players due to suspension, injury and bereavement - including Tony Woodcock, Anthony Boric, Jerome Kaino, Isaia Toeava, Rudi Wulf and Michael Hobbs - the Blues in that second-half rally challenged the unbeaten Stormers and showed some promise.

However the core basics, the line-out and the scrum, were once again found desperately wanting and it will an area of real concern for Pat Lam as his side regroups to tackle the Hurricanes at Eden Park this coming Friday.