Second-half lapse costly for Turbos
Another pre-season game, another pile of lessons for the Manawatu Turbos.
They lost to Tasman 40-33 in Porirua yesterday with a messy second half on both sides of the ball to blame.
Manawatu looked like a championship-winning side for periods of the first half, but then it all fell apart. Their 26-7 lead was eroded away by weak tackling and the inability to retain possession. That is not to say it was all bad. Halfback Jamie Booth was in stunning form on both attack and defence until a knock to his leg saw him leave the field in the 54th minute.
Wing Willy Ambaka, flanker Brice Henderson and prop Fraser Armstrong were others to stand out.
Coach Jeremy Cotter said the match highlighted plenty of areas they needed to work on, but added there were plenty of positives too.
‘‘The error rate was disappointing and some of the performances were good and others not so good,’’ he said. ‘‘At 26-7 we should have really put some heat on. Then they got two soft tries from poor reads.
‘‘But there were some really pleasing aspects as well’’
Most of the positives came inside the first 30 minutes.
Defensively, Manawatu were strong, despite leaking the first try to blockbusting centre Levi Aumua after prolonged pressure close to the line.
But with the ball, they were patient. They constantly retained the possession through multiple phases.
Their first try came after Brayden Iose made a big break down the left wing and fed Ambaka for a try.
Ambaka looked much better than his last preseason encounter. He was decisive on defence and electric on attack.
But he left the field in the second half with an upper arm injury. The seriousness of the injury was unknown after the match.
Hooker Hunter Prescott bagged a try through a rolling maul, which came after they won a penalty from a tighthead scrum.
Ambrose Curtis picked up the third from a scrum move close to the line and his second came in an impressive fashion as Booth took the ball to the line from a rolling maul inside Manawatu’s half, charged 30m down the field before offloading to Jade Te Rure, who got the ball to Curtis for the try.
They were looking well in control of the match.
But one glaring issue was their continued inability to secure kickoffs. That kept opening the
door for Tasman, who were led by an outstanding display by lock Shannon Frizell.
With five minutes until halftime, Manawatu took the foot off the pedal.
First Will Jordan was awarded a dubious try where there appeared to be a knock-on. That was followed by a second for Jordan when the Turbos allowed James Hawkey all the space to run.
They went into the sheds with Manawatu 26-21 ahead. But the break did nothing to wake Manawatu from their slumber.
There were plenty of holes in their midfield defence and some easy tackles missed.
On attack, Manawatu appeared to lose patience. They made countless errors in the first and second phase. They also failed to protect the ball at the breakdown.
Andrew Knewstubb scored to level the game and then Aumua put them ahead. Prop Sione Asi bagged one for Manawatu.
But they allowed Nick Foxley in late to secure the game for Tasman.
"At 26-7 we should have really put some heat on." Turbos coach Jeremy Cotter