| |
|
MAFIA TEES
Just $20 a shirt, a steal!
Not often you steal from the Mafia and live to tell the tale...
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
Plenty more reasons to win |
|
Written by Jamie Troughton
|
|
Monday, 27 September 2004 |
IF five NPC points were a soothing balm for a shaky 29-24 Bay of Plenty win over cellar-dwellers Northland, imagine what a couple of All Black jerseys and a clutch of Super 12 contracts would do.
Bay of Plenty continued their march towards the NPC semifinals, though not without a few scares on Saturday, as Northland bravely tried to sustain a run of painful Steamers' losses in Whangarei.
With a match against lowly Southland in Rotorua this week, Bay of Plenty are fifth on the table with 23 points, behind Wellington (26), Harbour (25), a faltering Taranaki (24) and a Canterbury side (23) with a better points differential.
Up in the empty stands of Whangarei's ITM Stadium were four more reasons for Steamers fans to smile.
At one stage All Black and Super 12 selectors threatened to out-number the home crowd as national coach Graham Henry, his assistant Wayne Smith, Blues coach Peter Sloane and Crusaders head Robbie Deans looked on.
With just one point from seven matches, it's a fair bet they weren't there to watch the blue-shirted Northland players.
Henry announces his 30-man All Black squad for November's Northern Hemisphere tour in less than a month and the Super 12 squads are named six days later, on October 29.
Despite poor conditions, woeful refereeing by Otago's Jonathan White and a muddling backline, several Steamers players still managed to shine in front of the high-powered quartet. While Wayne Ormond's claims to an All Black jersey are well-documented, prop Ben Castle's name could be added to a lengthy list of potential dark horses and bolters after another outstanding scrummaging display.
He has rarely been bested this season and quality tightheads are a rare breed in this country.
Fullback Adrian Cashmore also offered Deans a ready-made solution to the Crusaders' fullback problems, particularly as his future with the Chiefs is uncertain.
The Bay of Plenty Times believes Chiefs coach Ian Foster was unwilling to endorse Cashmore as a likely member of his squad earlier this month, despite calling the former All Black into his semifinal campaign this year and some impressive NPC form.
The Steamers locking stocks may also have appealed to Deans, as Brad Thorn is heading back to league and with Norm Maxwell a doubtful Super 12 aspirant due to constant injury. The selection pressures on Foster could become huge if several results pan out this weekend.
Two points behind Bay of Plenty is arch-rival Waikato, the major supplier of Chiefs Super 12 contracts for the past nine seasons.
Should Bay of Plenty beat Southland with a bonus point and Waikato lose to North Harbour on Sunday, Waikato will not be able to finish higher than their eastern neighbours and will certainly miss the semifinals.
That's a prospect looked upon with glee by Bay of Plenty management who were distraught last year when their side - despite finishing one spot below Waikato on the table - could only contribute four players to Foster's initial Chiefs squad.
Foster also set a dangerous precedent last year when he selected Roger Randle and Regan King, despite the injured pair playing little part in Waikato's NPC campaign. Neither recovered in time to play any Super 12 rugby.
By that rationale, injured Bay of Plenty stars Kevin Senio and Aleki Lutui are still well in the Super 12 frame, while more than a dozen of their teammates are putting up strong claims.
The quest for higher honours is still far from the minds of Bay of Plenty's players, however - a month from now is beyond the horizon for Ormond.
``We've really got to lift against Southland,'' Ormond said. ``In these next couple of weeks we just can't afford to drop our level, especially if we're serious about pushing on to the semifinals.''
Forwards steamed up over first try
BURLY prop Taufa'ao Filise admitted he'd been plotting to fix a troubling statistic in Bay of Plenty's NPC season.
Filise became the first forward to score a point in this year's campaign, although being driven over from a maul after 5mins in Saturday's match with Northland wasn't quite how he expected it to come.
``We had a move with the backs that I thought I was going to score from but we didn't get around to doing it,'' Filise said. ``Last night Nili (Latu) and I were talking that we had to get the first try by a forward. I was pretty glad to get over!''
Ironically Latu, the dynamic openside flanker, crossed just before halftime following a break by Grant McQuoid and involving Rua Tipoki, Adrian Cashmore and Colin Bourke.
Bourke also had a hand in Cashmore's try minutes earlier after Bay of Plenty screwed a Northland scrum and turned the ball over.
The try of the match proved to be the match-winner as well - with six minutes remaining replacement lock Paul Tupai burst through a gap, unloaded to Bourke, who found hooker Ngarimu Simpkins in support.
Simpkins was caught 10m out but flicked an outrageous over-the-head pass for Tipoki to stroll in.
Elsewhere though, it was a frustrating day at the office - the backline spilled more passes than they had all season as a plan to target Northland's inside channel defence came unstuck.
``We went ahead with the plan but they were really strong there so at halftime we had to change tactics,'' Tipoki said. ``They were rushing up but we just felt a bit jittery out there. We put a lot of expectation on ourselves to come away with a good win.''
Northland made a spirited comeback and a raking penalty kick camped them within metres of the tryline in the final seconds but two huge Bay of Plenty scrums propelled them backwards and ruined any momentum.
|
|
|
|
| |
|
Steamers 2008 |
| : Air New Zealand Cup |
| 31 July: Tasman WON 8-7 |
| 9 Aug: Counties WON 45-3 |
| 16 Aug: Harbour WON 38-31 |
| 22 Aug: Northland WON 15-10 |
| 30 Aug: Wellington Away |
| 5 Sep: Otago Baypark |
| 12 Sep: Auckland Rotorua |
| 18 Sep: Canterbury Away |
| 25 Sep: Southland Baypark |
| 3 Oct: Hawke's Bay Away |
|
|
|
|
News and Opinion 
