Evergreens’ defence exposed

Defence out wide will be a major work on for Manawatu after the Evergreens fell to the Hawke’s Bay Saracens 41-33 in Waipukurau on Wednesday night.

Manawatu were exposed on both flanks, giving up soft yardage in the six tries to five loss under poor lighting.

But it was not all negative for the Evergreens.

Defensively, they were organised around the ruck which made it hard for Hawke’s Bay pack to get any traction.

On attack, they looked organised and were finding their fair share of space, especially when they were patient.

Saracens opened the scoring with a penalty - a strange option in a pre-season match. But the Evergreens cashed in with the first try to Ben Wyness.

The Evergreens went up 14-3 after Nathan Tudreu latched on to a Wyness kick following a Brayden Iose break.

Then the holes in their defence started to open up.

Saracens centre Hayden Hann bagged a double to give them a 17-14 halftime lead.

The Evergreens came back with tries Patrick Tafili-reid and Liam Mitchell.

But the momentum of the

match quickly swung back in favour of Saracens who scored tried through Paulo Nu’u and Mitch Drew.

Evergreens hooker Tim Cadwallader picked up a try from a well-organised maul, which pulled the Evergreens within one point at 34-33.

But in the dying minutes with both teams having rolled their large benches, the Saracens found big space and secured the match.

Hamish Northcott turned on one his best displays this season until a poke in the eye ended his match prematurely.

Tudreu looked handy at second five-eighth. A knee injury, believed to be a tweak to his medial cruciate ligament, saw his evening come to an end.

The experiment to use him in the midfield at rep level looked to be worth further time.

Curtis Reid got an extended stint thanks to those injuries and took it with both hands. His physical presence and direct running saw plenty of reward.

Luther Hirini was solid at the back, as was Wyness at first fiveeighth. Sam Malcolm looked comfortable at halfback, but some of his passes were a bit high.

Willy Ambaka looked great on attack, but there were some serious question marks around his defence where his passive approach saw him caught out.

The Saracens targeted him in throughout the match and picked up plenty of points.

Iose was the forwards.

He made a couple of breaks and managed to constantly get his star of the arms free in the tackle, even though there was often no one there to take the offloads.

Harrison Brewer and Tom Parsons gave him good support and wouldhave been happy with their efforts.

Prop Sione Asi looked to be lacking match fitness and confidence.

In his first year out of Otago Boys’ High School and having battled injuries for much of the year, there are major question marks if he will be up to provincial rugby this season.

Hunter Prescott, Tim Cadwallader, Kirk Tufuga and George Macpherson all got through plenty of work.