Lineouts almost derail Turbos
A shonky lineout made beating Northland a whole lot harder than it should have been for the Manawatu Turbos.
They escaped with a 34-27 bonus-point win thanks to a try three minutes from fulltime by fullback Jason Emery in Whangarei on Friday night.
But their lack of ability to secure lineout ball was concerning.
It was not that the jumpers weren’t getting up, or that the throws weren’t straight, instead the throwers consistently sailed the ball over the out-stretched arms of the jumpers.
Coach Jeremy Cotter used the shepherd’s crook on starting hooker Tim Cadwallader at halftime, but things did not get much better when Hunter Prescott took over.
‘‘It was a case of let’s see how Hunter goes,’’ Cotter said. ‘‘[Making the change at halftime] was not planned, but it just was not working as it was.’’
Cotter said the lineouts put them under a lot pressure.
‘‘There is no coincidence that when we lost a couple of lineouts, we ended up putting a lot of pressure on ourselves. It just shows When he was shown yellow, Manawatu led 17-0. By the time he returned they were behind 19-17.
Northland expertly exploited their advantage spreading the ball down the left side of the field while Northcott was missing.
Cotter said there were plenty of positives to take out of the match.
‘‘I am happy to come away with a win, it is not an easy place to get one. It was good that we have shown patches that we can play well, but it highlighted areas where we can really improve on.
‘‘We showed some real character and composure to get ourselves out of it at the end.’’
Manawatu’s real advantage was the strength of their bench.
Jamie Booth, Otere Black, Callum Gibbins and Valentino Mapapalangi impacts.
It would not be surprising if all three earn starts for the next match. Emery looked good at fullback. He was dangerous coming into the line and appeared to position himself well on defence.
Ngani Laumape was another standout. all made strong
He scored on debut and looked tough to get to the ground.
The halves pairing of Toby Morland and Sam Malcolm looked solid, but Booth and Black lifted the standard when they came on.
In the forwards, Heiden Bedwell-curtis was impressive at No 8, as was prop Michael Alaalatoa.
On the Northland side, Kara Pryor’s man-of-match performance was almost enough to inspire his team to victory.
The Blues flanker was into everything and was Northland’s most dangerous player with ball in hand.
Manawatu’s next game is against Southland in Palmerston North on Friday, while Northland travel to Auckland.