Spirit has chance of backtoback wins

THE Otago Spirit has a chance to win its first backtoback games in three years.

It plays Hawke’s Bay at Tremain Field in Napier in today’s Farah Palmer Cup match, as it looks to continue its momentum after beating Tasman 820.

Indeed, the last time Otago backed up a win was against Hawke’s Bay, in Napier, too.

On that occasion, almost three years ago to the day, it won 1610, the last victory in a fourmatch winning streak.

It has been slim pickings since then, but with a win and a competitive loss in its two games so far, the team was feeling good.

‘‘I think everyone’s, pardon the pun, in pretty good spirits,’’ Otago Spirit coach Kane Jury said.

‘‘It’s been building I suppose and what we know is that if we stick to our game plan and stick to our roles and responsibilities, we’ll get results like that.’’

Jury had been away for last week’s win, but had reviewed the game on film and liked what he saw.

The ball moved well into the wider channels, the team carried well and it was gaining confidence in its skill set to play its attacking game.

However it was defence that left Jury the most thrilled.

‘‘In the last two games our tackle completion rate has been over 85% and that’s massively important moving forward.

‘‘Knowing that we’re going to be playing against some bigger, more powerful teams coming, it’s going to be a huge confidence booster heading into those games.’’

He said Hawke’s Bay was a powerful team and would be diffi cult to stop if it got forward momentum and Otago would look to limit its time and space with ball in hand.

It lost its first two games, 4110 against Wellington and 2410 against Bay of Plenty.

The Spirit’s Olivia Waldron had been ruled out with a foot injury.

The first fiveeighth had put on an impressive kicking display last week, making nine from 10 conversions and finding space behind the defence in general play.

Fullback Sheree Hume moves to first fiveeighth, Cheyenne Cunningham drops back to fullback from the right wing and Kiana Wereta comes in on the right wing.

In the other change to the starting lineup, Michaela Day drops to the bench in a swap for Annemieke van Vliet.

In the reserves Sam Hollows, Soraya UmagaJensen and Sarah Crabbe all come in.