Blues fly-half Michael Hobbs has been issued with the Super Rugby's first off-field yellow card after being accused of a dangerous tackle in their opening match against the Crusaders.

Hobbs was penalised 28 minutes into the Friday night game, narrowly won by the Crusaders 19-18, for the high tackle on Crusaders midfielder Ryan Crotty.

However, under new disciplinary rules being trialled this year, the citing commissioner can issue an off-field yellow card for incidents considered close to, but which in his opinion do not meet the threshold for a red card.

Although Hobbs' tackle was dealt with by the referee at the time, on further review of the match footage the commissioner deemed an off-field yellow card was appropriate.