Coaches study in contrast

OTAGO coach Tom Donnelly was not hiding his disappointment of his side’s performance in the Invercargill last night.

Donnelly said it was a game where Otago just never got anything going, losing 3215 to Southland.

‘‘It was pretty disappointing. We just didn’t fire a shot at all. Just way off our game tonight,’’ he said.

‘‘We had a really good week but I thought Southland played really well and we just did not adjust to it. No excuses — we just did play well enough.’’

He felt the ‘‘harder we tried the worse it got for us’’.

He did not want to blame travelling down yesterday as an excuse, and said the good thing was it was not the final for Otago.

‘‘We can flush this and get back into work on Monday. The guys are disappointed. It was Sio’s [Tomkinson] 50th game and Henry Bell made his debut and we couldn’t mark those occasions in a good way.’’

He felt the side was not good enough at the breakdown and went wide too quick on attack.

the rest of the half as it never got any continuity going, and at times stupidly got into a slugfest with the Southland forward pack.

Southland was content to keep the ball close to its forward pack and made some good yards around the ruck. Its played some

Southland coach Dale MacLeod was full of praise for his side. He said the team had worked hard and the players led the week.

‘‘The boys realised we were not good enough against Manawatu and we had a real short training week, so the boys brought the fizz this week,’’ MacLeod said.

‘‘They took ownership and it was just so good . . . we could not be happier. The intent and the attitude of the boys to get the job done was great . . . we got some really good gains on attack.’’

He felt Otago getting a bus down yesterday may have led to the visiting side taking Southland lightly.

The side was progressing and its attack was improving.

‘‘I think our bench made a real impact which hasn’t happened in the last few weeks. We’ve had a few injuries so that will help us coming forward.

‘‘But we’re really happy tonight. If you had asked anyone in the province what game they would like to win, 1000 times out of a 1000, you would get Otago.’’

clever inside balls to expose the Otago defence.

Otago regained the lead with the last play of the half when Sio Tomkinson, playing his 50th game for Otago, ran a good angle off a scrum and waltzed over to score.