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Battling Bay need to rebuild |
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Written by Jamie Troughton
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Monday, 17 September 2007 |
IT'S easy to kick a whimpering, toothless dog lying helpless in the gutter with a broken leg ... so here goes.
The Steamers explored previously uncharted areas of awful yesterday, crashing 19-0 to Southland at BlueChip Stadium, snatching their seventh defeat of the season and losing at home to the Stags for the first time in 13 years.
It was the first time since their 22-0 loss to Wairarapa Bush in 1984 that Bay has failed to score a point and there were blind seagulls with clipped wings nesting on the stadium roof who could have caught more passes than the blokes in blue and yellow.
The brave patrons of BlueChip wandered home through the clinging clay wondering why they'd bothered, while even the victorious Southlanders seemed embarrassed in having played a match of such low quality.
After a while, however, kicking the hapless canine that the Steamers have become gets tiring and you've got to figure out how to drag the bedraggled pooch off the side of the road and get it to a vet. Whatever the medicine that needs dispensing, it needs to come now.
Forget the past two games of the season, for all intents and purposes, and figure out how to salvage things for next season.
Contrary to what the more reactionary rugby heads out there are saying, Steamers coaches Kevin Schuler and Steve Miln have to stay.
No matter how much they deny it, the pair got the mother of all hospital passes landing the team after the calamity of the Andre Bell sacking saga.
There may still be further chaos, with persistent rumours four senior players are pulling stumps and departing, but the planning for their replacements must begin now.
Schuler, like Bell last year, has the right idea in promoting local talent first.
Interestingly, that's what Southland coaches David Henderson and Simon Culhane decided in 2005 when they took over and though they copped some hidings from it, the fruits are ripening now.
The Stags lie sixth on the table, seemingly guaranteed a quarterfinal spot, with matches against lowly Manawatu and North Harbour to come.
Surely, however, the Steamers will have to go shopping for two or three key players, like a lock who can catch and a couple of replacement props.
Several tons of fibreglass and duct tape would also be a handy acquisition to patch up the backline - because admittedly when the best players are on the field and fit, points come rolling.
There was nothing rolling yesterday, apart from the rain coming in and the drums beating for the end of a dire season.
Flankers Colin Bourke, Solomon King and Warren Lippi-Smith were the best of a very bad cart of apples, with Lippi-Smith putting in the most convincing lineout display of the season. Which would be great, if he was a lock and not a blindside flanker.
Bourke missed a simple penalty in the first five minutes which ended up Bay's best scoring chance.
There's undeniable talent within the team but there's also undeniable inexperience. Southland skipper Clarke Dermody admitted experience was crucial: ``This Southland team has been together for a while and we're just starting to come of age,'' the tighthead prop said. ``Combinations are starting to work and there's a core group of experienced players. There's 12 or 13 guys with more than 25 games, which is significant.''
Dermody inadvertently provided one of the few highlights of the game, when Bay halfback Jamie Nutbrown scampered behind referee Jonathan White and Dermody smashed the whistle-blower into the turf.
At that stage Southland led 13-0. In terms of what unfolded over the next 44 highly forgettable minutes, maybe White should have called things off then.
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