Lineout must be turned into a strength for Turbos

I blame the Northland comeback on one rogue Manawatu lineout throw about 25 minutes in. Even worse, it was one of two lost from penalties awarded to Manawatu. It enabled Northland to get hot on attack.

You have to be able to take the pain if you are a Manawatu Turbos fan.

Your TV tube must be able to absorb the impact of angry cushions.

Case in point was last Friday’s NPC rugby opener at Whangarei when the Turbos let slip a 17-0 lead and yet somehow got up to win 34-27.

If only they could win a game going away; it has just never been the way they do things.

Winning on foreign dirt was admirable against a fresh Taniwha mob.

But the Turbos were patently a more skilled team with their passing and offloads, their linespeed rushes and scrums.

But still the cursed lineout plagues them, and us, as it did last season and was a factor in the relegation of 2015 hookers, Rob Foreman and Nick Grogan.

I blame the Northland comeback on one rogue Manawatu lineout throw about 25 minutes in. Even worse, it was one of two lost from penalties awarded to Manawatu. It enabled Northland to get hot on attack and led to Hamish Northcott being harshly binned.

During his 10 minutes in the cooler, Northland scored three tries against an under-manned Manawatu backline and the whole team then got flustered.

The rookie referee was aptly named Mabey (or should it be Maybe?) because he had pinged Northland six times and Manawatu had barely infringed.

Yet when Northcott handled the ball in a ruck, the kid got trigger happy and dispatched him.

That aside, let’s hope the lineout malady, chiefly overthrowing, is worked on tirelessly so it becomes a strength. The Turbos lost five of their 12 throws at Whangarei.

Lock Kane Thompson has played everywhere for ages and must have the rings on the bark to help sort this out.

Manawatu’s winning try, three minutes from time, came off a lineout which was won, but only just.

They did steal two Northland lineouts and almost scored off one of those.

Last year the Turbos couldn’t win a kickoff. Northland put up tricky short kicks down the middle, and the Turbos botched just two, one of them the first of the game.

And Turbos: Take notice that suicidal chip kicks are banned, as we have said for years.

Tell Ambrose Curtis, whose chip kick off a precious turnover gifted Northland a try, if it happens tomorrow night against Southland, I expect burly manager Verne Wilson to march out and flail them with his red folder.

Who caught the bug?

The All Blacks sleuths might have caught the bug, but it seemed the Wallabies had caught a bug of Havelock North camplyobacterosis at Sydney on Saturday.

Even had the black game plan been sent in an email to Michael Cheika, his players would have been powerless to do anything about it as the AB kamikazes flew at them.

The test was a reflection of the dominance and speed of our sides in Super Rugby.

The Aussies did have David Pocock as a jackal, but he will be redundant when the breakdown laws in use in the NPC are applied at all levels of rugby.

Their only tries against the All Blacks in the past two tests have been when the AB s were down to14 men - when Ben Smith was in the bin for his tip tackle in the World Cup final and when Kieran Reid was cooling off after sacking a maul on Saturday.

The Wallabies, remember, should also have lost their World Cup quarterfinal to Scotland, the one where ref Andre Joubert scooted off the field after his dodgy penalty.

The Aussies might be injury hit, but then the All Blacks backs will be without Sonny Bill Williams, George Moala, Waisake Naholo, Nehe Milner-skudder, Ryan Crotty and Charlie Ngatai.

It’s tough to pinprick after a demolition. However, Ben Smith, the best and most infallible fullback anywhere, who seldom makes an error, should be in the No 15 jersey instead of being an outrigger on the wing.

Israel Dagg is still flighty, so plonk him on the wing if need be.

The Hurricanes and All Blacks also shoved Milner-skidder to No 14 when he too was most lethal from fullback, although Smith was at 15 for the ABS.

While the All Blacks were sublime in the first half on Saturday, the second half, when the subs rolled on, degenerated into a mess, including posting Aaron Cruden to an experimental somewhere.