Makos deserve their final fling against Canterbury
OPINION: It’s been building all season.
The Makos’ march into the Mitre 10 Cup final, with a deserved 41-29 win over Taranaki in New Plymouth on Sunday, may have surprised the TAB odds-makers, but not those who have seen the team develop over the past two months.
As the season has progressed Tasman have developed their style of play, their culture and their resilience to the point where they will line up against Canterbury on Saturday night with nothing to fear.
Early season they battled to score tries as the coaches and senior players tried to integrate 12 newcomers into the side.
From the start though, they showed the backbone that has served them so well as the pressure has mounted in recent weeks, eking out narrow wins without discovering the flair of previous Makos outfits.
Then it began to click. Away wins over Hawke’s Bay and Auckland, an historic occasion, underlined the fact that this side travels well. They suffered injuries to key players along the way but the management showed faith in their youngsters and have been rewarded.
As the results went their way, their confidence grew, the off-loads continued but the passes stuck and the tries began to come.
On Sunday, it all came together as the Makos managed one of the gutsiest wins in their short history.
The Bull Ring in New Plymouth is not a place for the faint hearted. The boisterous crowd is usually a 24th player for the home side but they, and their team, were generally silenced as the Makos went to work.
They played a better style of rugby, their scrum was a potent weapon and it would have been a travesty if they had been overtaken in the final minutes.
Tasman’s defence leaked five tries, which will no doubt cause coaches MacDonald and Hammett some sleepless nights this week, but they were in areas that can be plugged.
There were heroes aplenty in red jerseys, none more so than the skipper. The new laws may have changed the way Shane Christie plays the game but he has adapted superbly with tireless breakdown work, tackling and ball-carrying.
By halftime he had lost his experienced loose forward mates, Pete Samu and Tevita Koloamatangi, but the work of their replacements, Ethan Blackadder and Shannon Frizell, was equally effective. Both these guys are bound for Super Rugby contracts.
Another who stepped into big shoes was Alex Nankivell. With David Havili out of action he produced the goods in midfield and did so in style, and against some highly-rated opposition.
Billy Guyton and Marty Banks showed their big match experience. Guyton raised his running game to new levels, complementing the forwards whose close-passing game would put some backs to shame. Banks, who is playing with a broken finger, has become the Makos’ guiding light and will be sorely missed when he says sayonara at the end of the season.
Former Nelson College star Mitchell Hunt appears a readymade replacement. The pint-sized fullback barely put a foot wrong against Taranaki and is beginning to look every inch a Super Rugby player.
James Lowe, who must have been on the All Blacks selectors minds, produced a couple of moments of magic, and his enthusiasm for the game appears contagious. But, when it comes to handing out plaudits it is hard to go past the big boppers up front.
The tight five, plus reserves, owned the scrums, worked the lineouts well, passed and carried superbly, and did their work at the breakdown. You can’t ask for more than that.
Tasman’s attacking game has again become a blueprint for side’s wanting to produce attractive, funto-play, winning rugby. They will continue to do things their way against Canterbury, who handed them their biggest defeat of the season. Consequently, the Makos will start as second favourites again next week, but that’s just the way they like it.