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Steamers bubble to top on player power |
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Written by Craig Tiriana
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Monday, 17 August 2009 |
Bay of Plenty's solo position at the top of the Air New Zealand Cup table has more to do with player power than the waving of a magic wand by the coaching staff.
Senior players such as captain Colin Bourke, Mike Delany, Culum Retallick and John Moore were excelling on and off field as the Steamers bagged their third successive win by toppling Wellington 21-17 in Rotorua on Saturday night.
It was an historic victory, just the union's third against the capital side since 1912 and first at Rotorua International Stadium.
The victory came amidst the backdrop of appointed Steamers coach Greg Smith and the union parting ways officially, Sean Horan being appointed midweek and the stance of Wellington coach Jamie Joseph regarding playing, and not playing, his returning All Blacks.
Add in both teams were at the top of the table and it's no wonder a huge number of the official 5000 crowd ignored the ground announcer and joyfully invaded the pitch after fulltime to congratulate their warriors in blue and gold.
Former Bay player and current board chairman Bruce Cameron called the win one of the ``great days'' in the union's history.
Horan, who had previously been the manager/set piece coach, didn't want to comment on the previous coaching regime but gave an insight into how the Bay squad had moved forward during the last three weeks with wins against Northland, Counties/Manukau and Wellington.
``The gameplan is what they were used to and what the players believe in,'' Horan said of his and Steve Miln's coaching approach.
``We've put a lot of onus on the leadership group in the team to deliver. We did a lot of listening and identified where we wanted to go and what we needed to do. There were tweaks here and tweaks there and a mental change.''
The contributions of the senior players has been huge, with Delany rivalling Daniel Carter as the form first-five in the competition, while the Bay forwards have had the measure in large chunks against their opponents.
Add in the vision and tactical nous of Phil Burleigh at second-five, halfback Junior Poluleuligaga and Bourke at No8 and the Steamers have a tactical kicking game as good as any. Their boots terrorised and turned the Wellington side in the opening 40 minutes, with the loosies led by rampaging Luke Braid and centre Cory Aporo chasing, harassing and generally making menaces of themselves.
Wellington folded in the heat, spilling kicks and passes while Aporo fended off some weak tackles to score the first of his two tries. Delany was striking the ball sweetly and banged over three penalties, the conversion of Aporo's second try, and narrowly missed with a couple of 50-plus metre efforts as the Steamers led 21-6 by the break.
Despite Joseph not wanting all of his available All Blacks for the game, he quickly turned to Rodney So'oialo for the second half, the No8 and replacement first-five Fa'atonu Fili having impact as the Bay tired.
Referee Ben Skeen also found fault with the home side, pinging them 8-3 in the second-half penalty count and 12-7 overall to turn the momentum.
Wellington also got the benefit of the doubt with a dodgy try to flanker Scott Fuglistaller when a foot was in touch. Fili kicked two penalties, with James McGougan and Braid caught infringing among the desperate defending in the closing minutes.
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