Grass definitely greener on winning side
A Turbos victory of any sort at Rotorua, such as the 17-15 nerve-jangler on Thursday, is worth breaking out the green sauvignon blanc for.
Manawatu¯ had beaten Bay of Plenty at Rotorua only once and that was the inaugural clash in 1951 – yes, 67 long years ago.
So while the Turbos courageously ended their six-game losing banana skid, they consigned BOP to their fifth straight defeat.
Who would have put a lazy fiver on that when the season kicked off as the Steamers blasted Taranaki 30-10 and downed Countiesmanukau at Pukekohe?
Both teams are now banged up, BOP with injuries and the Turbos with exhaustion in extremis after a crucifying four games in 13 days.
‘‘The guys are shattered,’’ said coach Jeremy Cotter. ‘‘They had to dig really deep to get through.’’
After busing home yesterday, they won’t see a football again until Monday, so they can luxuriate in a gargantuan break of a week before journeying to Hawke’s Bay next Friday.
Positives first. Jamie Booth’s magnificent supersonic 40-metre try after a mere 57 seconds and Otere Black’s line kicks. First-five Sam Malcolm was a revelation at fullback running on to Junior Laloifi’s offload for try No 2 and Laloifi coming within a toenail of a third try in the corner.
Manawatu¯ had a superior lineout and attacking prowess whereas BOP, without gun first-five Mike Delany and losing Jason Robertson to a possible broken leg, did not.
The Turbos being the Turbos, though, contrived to put their fans through agony, up 17-3 after 54 minutes and then hanging on by a desperate thread with prop Faalelei Sione in the cooler.
Some tough late calls had youngster Kaleb Trask lining up the winning kick from 50 metres out to burgle the game with time up – thankfully ignoring the dangerous lineout maul option – only to come up short. ‘‘I was quite relieved when he went for the goal-kick,’’ Cotter said. ‘‘It was a long kick, he’s a young guy and there was a lot of pressure on him.’’
To give the Turbos credit, their strenuous tackling for the first hour forced the Steamers to continually cough up the ball.
‘‘We showed resilience in our defence.
‘‘This week we practised getting up hard off the line to force errors, and we did. It was nice to be able to put pressure on another team that’s struggling.
‘‘We had control of the game at
‘‘The guys are shattered . . . They had to dig really deep to get through.’’ Manawatu¯ coach Jeremy Cotter
the start of the second half.’’
They did indeed when up 14-3 after spending a meagre 45 seconds in BOP’S 22.
It should have been 17-3 had Black been directed to the posts. Although the Turbos obviously wanted a four-try bonus point, in a lean season, let’s win the darn contest first.
They did have a backline. BOP’S was unemployed.
Each time they went to the corner lineout, it was a fizzer or they let BOP off the hook with snafus or penalties. BOP did have a grinding maul, as does Hawke’s Bay, by the way.
Ask Cotter about Manawatu¯ ’s frailties and he is diplomatic: ‘‘Work in progress’’.
One was the creaking scrum and the infernal rucks where opponents railroaded Turbos off the ball time and again, even if the Steamers got away with infringing. On the ruck problems: ‘‘Fatigue and sloppiness and poor body height.’’
Three key moments in the second half let BOP back in. One was being rucked off the ball, another when Laloifi unwisely went into heavy contact and the other when Sione was warned but stayed offside. That invited BOP to score their late try.
Manawatu¯ were clearly dead on their feet at the death after playing so long in their own half. And Trask botching a sitter conversion helped the cause.
By the way, BOP had only four Bop-bred players in their 23. Manawatu¯ had 12 home-breds.