Cyclones hopeful of improving
The Manawatu¯ Cyclones may have had the best season in their history, but they still believe they can do better.
This year the Cyclones reached the playoffs for the first time, beat Auckland for the first time and retained their spot in the top-tier premiership.
Coach Fusi Feaunati was pleased with the campaign and said they achieved good things. But he would have liked them to push on and perform better in some of their games.
‘‘We always get branded as underdogs and I hoped the girls could fight through that tag. Just because people don’t expect us to win, doesn’t mean we don’t expect ourselves to win.’’
Feaunati said Manawatu¯ needed a better club competition to keep the players working on their game.
‘‘One thing noticeable in the premiership is the other teams have got better over the last two years and that’s because people are developing women’s rugby,’’ he said.
‘‘The major dilemma for us is while we believe we’ve got better, everybody else is getting better too.’’
He was positive about the club development model brought in this year, which will happen again next season.
Because there were only three club teams, all players joined together before the club season for training hubs, before they were split into mixed teams for games.
Feaunati said they had only 48 registered senior players and three club teams to compete against the best in the country, so they need to work out how they could continue to compete at premiership level.
He is committed to the women’s hub programme for next year, but has just finished the second year of his two-year contract, so will have to wait until after reviews until he knows if he will be back.
Champions Canterbury, who knocked Manawatu¯ out in the semifinals, were a cut above everyone else in the competition, but otherwise no-one was out of the Cyclones’ reach.
Auckland were once the powerhouse of the women’s game, but are a shadow of their former selves and have been relegated to the secondtier championship.
Manawatu¯ only played six games and even if some teams in the championship are not up to the standard of competition, with regular blow outs, crossover games could be extended next season.
Losing 31-22 to Counties Manukau, having led 17-0 early in the game, was one match that stuck in Feaunati’s craw.
Losing experienced prop Sita Kuruyabaki at the start of the season was also costly.
Manawatu¯ are one of the smaller teams in the competition and could do with a couple of big bodies in the pack to help them match it with the bigger unions. They have one of the better backlines, but need forward parity.
Another big loss was exciting outside back Ruci Malanicagi, who pulled out due to concussion problems.
They have unearthed two genuine stars in Manukura schoolgirls Kalyn Takitimu-cook and Carys Dallinger.
Loose forwards Nicole Dickins and Sam Tipene were their usual hard-working selves this year, while experienced halfback Kristina Sue was influential.
Star fullback Selica Winiata is a threat in every game, but missed a chunk of the season with concussion.
Young lock Jessica Fagan-pease has potential and utility back Lauren Balsillie improved as the season went on.