Getting the ZONE
RUGBY
IT has been an upanddown ride for Josh Ioane this season.
It is a season which started near on a year ago and which Ioane hopes will go on another couple of weeks at least.
Ioane (25) has been on and off the field, hot and cold at times, and then not playing in his preferred No 10 jersey.
‘‘It had been a long season. We started preseason back in December 2019, then Super Rugby started, and then had to have a break . . . ’’ he said
‘‘But it is finals footy now so there is a lot to play for so it should be an exciting couple of weeks. How do we play better? We’ve just got to to prep well.
‘‘We know if we play our best footy it puts us in a good position to win games. This week we just need to put our best foot forward and that is about preparation.’’
Ioane played the opening weeks of Super Rugby before the lockdown at second fiveeighth with mixed results.
He then picked up a groin injury when Super Rugby Aotearoa started but came back at first fiveeighth and impressed as the Highlanders went well.
That has continued for Otago which has lodged wins over heavyweights Wellington and Canterbury but has fallen short over the past couple of weeks, suffering losses against Southland and then Tasman.
‘‘The last couple of weeks has not been our best performances. Especially coming off a good effort against Canterbury.
‘‘This week we have stripped it all back, refreshed the bodies. We are confident enough if we get our detail right.
‘‘Southland just wanted it more than us. Can’t put it down to one thing. They just played better than us.
‘‘Against Southland, it was a terrible game from me. It was a bad day for the team and a bad one for myself. Every player has those sort of games. The key for me is to learn from that performance and move forward.’’
Ioane is eyeing a Northland side which will be much changed from the one which played at Forsyth Barr Stadium last month. The men from Kauri country dropped everything which came their way that night and shot themselves in the foot.
Ioane did not play in the match as he was dropped for discipline reasons.
‘‘We’re expecting a good Northland team and they will be hungry.
‘‘They had a good win against Waikato and will come down here confident and with some support.’’
‘‘For us it is about getting in the zone. Just not overthinking anything and simply playing our game.’’
Ioane spent a week with the All Blacks before the test in Auckland and said he enjoyed it and it was good to be back in there. He was told he was the next cab off the rack should any of the No 10s go down.
Ioane has eight papers left before getting a degree in commerce but a longterm goal with rugby was the priority at the moment.
Ioane declined to comment on the reasons behind his dropping, along with teammate Vilimoni Koroi, for the match against Northland last month.
SOUTHLAND’S season was like a big bag of potatoes — plenty of starch but not enough variety.
Defensively, the Stags were as frugal as some of their Scottish ancestors who settled in the deep South.
They built their game around an underrated pack which was far greater than the sum of its individual parts.
The scrum was immovable. The defence impregnable. And skipper Tony Lamborn kept beating everyone to the breakdown.
The Stags loose forward trio of Lamborn, Matthew James and Charles Alaimalo were formidable in that area of the game.
Hooker Greg PleasantsTate was awfully handy on that score as well and was the Stags leading attacking threat when he got himself tucked in at the back of the maul.
The tight five was very decent. Props Siate Tokolahi and Ethan De Groot did not have a reverse gear and hardworking lock Mike McKee produced some quality shifts.
It was a perfect pack for wetweather rugby. And the Stags managed to register three wins — something they had not achieved since 2014.
But despite their obvious strengths up front, the Stags wanted to play with width and that is where the game plan unravelled.
Southland certainly possessed some elusive players out wide but, as a unit, the backline disappointed — over and over again.
The statistics highlight that point.
The Stags conceded fewer points (193) than any other side in the Championship or the Premiership.
But on the flipside they also had the worst attacking record. Southland scored just 144 points in 10 games — 54 points fewer than nextworst attacking side Manawatu.
Coach Dale MacLeod felt the Stags would probably have won more games had the attack operated with more accuracy.
‘‘I think the disappointing thing was we could have achieved more,’’ he said.
‘‘When you look at it, we beat two teams that are playing the Championship semifinals in Otago and Hawke’s Bay.
‘‘We went very close and probably deserved to beat Bay of Plenty, who are in the Premierships semifinals.
‘‘But we also lost to the two bottom teams and for me that is probably the most disappointing thing. ‘‘We let ourselves down there. ‘‘But there is a lot to be taken away from the season and we can be proud of some of the things we achieved.
‘‘We put some pride back into the jersey.’’
Winning away from home remains a big challenge for the team.
It has been five years since the
Stags posted a win away from Invercargill.
Southland set the tone early with a gutsy 1610 win against Hawke’s Bay. In round three it produced a dogged effort to beat North Harbour 1110.
The 1714 loss to Bay of Plenty could easily have been a win as well.
But the Stags lost the next five: 109 to Waikato; 1814 to Northland; 179 to Taranaki; 4710 to Tasman and 2412 to Manawatu.
The loss to Northland was particularly painful. Southland did all the attacking but could not find the finish it needed to secure the win.
It undid some of the damage with a 3215 win against a lacklustre Otago side. That win gave it an outside chance of making the Championship playoffs.
But the Stags lacked physicality in the 2517 loss to Counties Manukau and bowed out.
The key to next season will be to maintain the defensive intensity and get the backs to chip in more.
It is the best you can do with a big bag of potatoes.