Another trip to Christchurch, twice as many chartered planes and another heavy defeat for the mighty Steamers. Whereas last year, we were outplayed by an All Black laden outfit but actually played pretty well – this year we never really threatened and conceded too many penalties to ever get enough territory to compete. Luckily the Canterbury team made many errors as well which kept us in the game until late in the second half.
Yeah Right...
In fact if a couple of refereeing calls had gone our way we could have actually been ahead, firstly a non-existent knock-on from Ormond that called Lutui back when he was storming for the line and the penalty against Latu when he scooted from a ruck. I am pretty sure the ref only called that one because it was a try, the same thing happens many times in a game, a forward picking the ball out of the ruck to set up the next drive.
In the end the try to Hamilton finished us off and the yellow card to Ormond meant that the score blew out. Luckily Tahana scooted over for a late try (even outpacing Reuben Thorne) for our first 5-pointer of the season. So what is going wrong so far? - Too many penalties. I love the way Latu competes at the breakdown but if the ref doesn’t penalise the tackled player for holding on then he has to let go of the ball. We need to trust our strong defence and force the errors from the opposition.
- The backline. No fluency with the changes in personnel and the tactical kicking game has been poor. Vern also seems unsure as to who he wants at 13 and 14.
"I bloody scored Ref"....
Reasons for optimism? - The forward pack has been very solid, the scrum is competing well and the loose forwards are very busy. We just need to get down to the right areas of the field.
- Williams will get better. We have seen what he can do, with more experience he will improve.
Enough about the rugby! Yet again the chartered planes were a great success, 4 737s were filled this time (or rather the same plane filled 4 times) and on the Saturday morning Christchurch was full of blue and gold. Thanks to Shane Kennedy House of Travel for the great organisation, to Hori BOP for his tireless tour guiding and to airport security for making us feel so special. The two hotels, the Crowne Plaza and the Heritage were also great at making us feel welcome. 
The vocal Bay supporters - The Family front and centre
Friday night was a great night for the Bay fans in the city and much alcohol was consumed, however it has to be said that Saturday night was a little flatter! So will we be able to celebrate winning the Shield at all in 2005? Well … were DS Waikato to scrape past the Cantabs in their challenge (no doubt dependent on illegal tactics and a biased ref) then we would get the first challenge over the Kaimais. And what a day that would be. We can but dream …… |
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