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MAFIA TEES
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Pressure gets to young Bay side |
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Written by Craig Tiriana
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Monday, 01 September 2008 |
The Bay of Plenty Steamers have just five working days to determine whether Saturday's 48-12 Air New Zealand Cup loss to Wellington was a speed bump or something more serious.
Scheduled to assemble at Bay Park today, the side would be better off forgetting about the round five hammering by Wellington and working on simply getting back to basics for Friday's home match against Otago.
This loss isn't season-wrecking but there were enough mistakes to suggest the pressure of the occasion got to the young Bay side.
After chalking up seven successive wins, including four in the national provincial championships, things came unstuck for the Steamers during Saturday's top of the table clash.
The simple things were not done well in the Capital City and that was largely why the Steamers conceded seven tries and could only score two of their own in reply.
Individual handling errors were rife and the lineout didn't function for the first time this season while Wellington's loosies got the better of the breakdowns, turning over a bundle of Bay ball and setting loose a pacy backline.
The combined result saw Wellington unstoppable and looking every bit a title threatening combination. Flying left-winger Hosea Gear was the chief beneficiary, finishing off a personal hattrick to take his season tally to seven while powerful Sevens representative Victor Vito scored a double.
Wellington picked up their fifth consecutive five-point win of the championships and they now sit comfortably ahead of Canterbury and Bay who round out the top three. The challenge now, according to Bay captain Tanerau Latimer, is to learn quickly and move on.
``We're still travelling okay, it's just on halfway [through] - we've got some tough games coming up. This is probably what we needed to show us what Super 14 based franchise teams are capable of,'' he said.
What they should've learned should come from looking squarely at themselves and raising the personal skill bar from here with Otago, Auckland and Canterbury in successive weeks.
``No excuses, we just got outplayed and out-muscled, life moves on, this week we're back into it,'' said Latimer.
The Bay's skipper and openside flanker was outpointed in his personal battle with Wellington's Serge Lilo, who had a cracker of a match in tandem with Vito and Thomas Waldrom.
``Serge is a great player especially over the ball, he played very well,'' said Latimer, who has been in fine form but believes he can learn from his opponent.
``There are a few things I'd really like to get better at and one of them is at the breakdown, it's just head down and bum up.''
Latimer said he'd also have to look at some speed work after Vito left him sprawling on the way to his second try.
``I got clean skinned; he's quick,'' Latimer said of the big No 6.
The best of the Bay's effort came from halfback Jamie Nutbrown and the scrum that had the better of their opponents, even pushing them off their ball at one stage. Nutbrown consistently found room around the fringes but frequently the probes were too little with either a turnover or knock-on robbing the Bay of the pressure to gain points.
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Steamers 2010 |
| : ITM Cup |
| Position: 8 |
| 31 July: Waikato, L 10-13 |
| 6 Aug: Hawke's Bay, W 30-11 |
| 14 Aug: Auckland L 6-11 |
| 20 Aug: Taranaki, L 15-24 |
| 29 Aug: Harbour, W 39-29 |
| 3 Sep: Canterbury, Away |
| 9 Sep: Manawatu, Baypark |
| 19 Sep: Counties, Baypark |
| 24 Sep: Otago, Rotorua |
| 30 Sep: Wellington, Away |
| 10 Oct: Tasman, Away |
| 16 Oct: Southland, Baypark |
| 21 Oct: Northland, Away |
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