Breakers to lock down rotation in the regions
‘‘Over the course of the three games, we had our good moments and we had some poor moments.’’
It was a simple summary for New Zealand Breakers coach Paul Henare on how his team performed in the Australian NBL’s pre-season Blitz tournament in Victoria last week.
‘‘One of the main things coming out of the Blitz was to make sure we’re as healthy as can be and we did a good job of managing the loads of all the guys through that tournament and the boys have done well,’’ Henare said.
With a 2-1 record, the side achieved what they set out to and now cast their eye to three final pre-season tilts. The Breakers will play Melbourne United in Taradale (September 17) and New Plymouth (September 19) before hosting the Brisbane Bullets in Tauranga (September 27) as they look to shore up their systems ahead of the ANBL season.
While a number of the younger guys in the squad saw quality court time during the Blitz, Henare said that wouldn’t be the case when the team hit the regions.
‘‘We used the Blitz for that, to really share the load. Coming into these games against Melbourne and
Brisbane we’ll probably shorten up the rotations a little bit more because we only have these games before we start the season so we really need to start fine tuning our systems and our rotations so they look more like they will in the regular season.’’
Tall Blacks quartet Shea Ili, Finn Delany, Jordan Ngatai and Derone Ruakawa were among those who were likely to see their roles decline.
All four played big roles in the Tall Blacks’ campaign at the Fiba Asia Cup in Beirut last month as the national side went young, showing positive signs for the future.
However, the depth in the Breakers squad meant they would have to wait for their shot in the ANBL.
‘‘Obviously going into that Tall Blacks campaign, guys like Shea and Finn and Jordan and Derone, they had a significantly different role to what they’ll have in this programme.
‘‘That’s not to take away anything from them as players, but they’ve got some good quality players around or in front of them in their position and for me it’s about each of those guys continuing to grow and learn.’’
Imports D.J. Newbill and Edgar Sosa will likely see more minutes leading into the start of the season, with Sosa missing much of the Blitz with an Achilles niggle.
‘‘He was pretty frustrated at not being able to get out on the floor and work into a bit of rhythm, but this early on we wanted to make sure he was right come the start of the season.’’
The side have only filled two of their three available import spots for the season, with both Newbill and Sosa playing in the back court, as they show their faith in their Kiwi big men.
Big men Alex Pledger, Rob Loe and Mika Vukona will likely play big roles, with Henare praising Vukona’s preparation for the season ahead.
‘‘He’s injury free, he’s moving well, he’s fit and probably the best he’s been leading into a season than he has been in quite some time.’’ The Taranaki Development team were beaten as much by their own lack of patience as by the opposition in their Northern Regions match at Tikorangi on Saturday.
The 17-5 loss to the Auckland Colts, who had previously not won a match in this year’s competition, was the team’s second straight defeat, and coach Ngatai Walker said mistakes caused by a lack of patience on attack were hurting the team.
‘‘The effort was there and we were more physical at ruck time and defensively than we had been the previous week, but we weren’t patient,’’ Walker said. ‘‘We had three or four chances in the first half that we didn’t finish, and they scored the first time they got down into our 22.’’
Despite the wet weather and a lot of water on the Clifton ground, both teams attempted to shift the ball from the kickoff and prospects looked bright when Taranaki Development scored from a rolling maul to take a 5-0 lead.
But as the ground became heavier and mistakes were made, points became difficult to come by, and it was the Auckland Colts who grabbed a 7-5 halftime lead when scoring a converted try.
The second half followed the pattern of the first, with the Auckland Colts pouncing on two Taranaki Development mistakes to score tries – both from kick errors – and leaving the home team to ponder what might have been.
The defeat means Taranaki Development will need to win their remaining three games to have any chance of defending the title they won when going through the competition unbeaten last year. The team play Waikato away this weekend before taking on the two sides ahead of them in the competition – North Harbour and undefeated Auckland.
Despite the loss there were some good performances. Openside flanker Dylan Juffermans, back after a week’s rest, was strong on attack and defence, reserve prop Paulo Leleisiuao made an impact and hooker Sione Lea toiled hard in the wet. ❚ The Taranaki under-19 team lost their opening game 32-28 to Southland at the national Jock Hobbs Memorial Tournament at Taupo on Sunday and will now play for the tournament’s minor placings.
Playing in the second tier competition, the Michael Jones Trophy, Taranaki were beaten despite the opposition playing most of the second half with 14 men.
Taranaki led 21-13 at halftime but when Southland had a player red carded for a tip tackle just after the break, it appeared to galvanise the southerners.