TIME TO CHALLENGE
Taranaki hope to pay the perfect tribute to late patron Peter Burke when they challenge Canterbury for the Ranfurly Shield today.
Burke, who was farewelled in New Plymouth yesterday, was a central figure in two of Taranaki’s greatest shield eras while his involvement with rugby in the province was immense.
‘‘Peter made a huge impact and had great influence on rugby,’’ Taranaki coach Colin Cooper said.
‘‘He brought a lot of success to Taranaki rugby for a long time and made an important contribution to the game nationally, so we want to honour his memory by putting in a good performance against Canterbury and hopefully getting a win.’’
Taranaki left for Christchurch yesterday where they planned to have a captain’s run on AMI Stadium, a venue they won at in 2015.
While the Ranfurly Shield should be all the incentive Taranaki needs against Canterbury, there was also the small matter of moving back to the top of the table, something they are desperate for as they try to position themselves for a home play-off.
Cooper made the point before the team left that talk of the shield had been minimal in their preparation and that was backed up by captain Angus Ta’avao.
Part of the reasoning around that was the experience the squad got last season when they focussed solely on the shield when they challenged Waikato and were left seriously deflated for some time afterwards when they could only manage a draw after having a prime opportunity to win in.
‘‘You love to win the shield but you’ve also got the bigger competition to play,’’ Ta’avao said.
‘‘We’re going down to Canterbury to do a job first and if we managed to win the shield that would be a huge bonus but we are just focussed on getting the win first.’’
Ta’avao has experienced just one shield challenge in his career, a loss for Auckland in Invercargill, while only Seta Tamanivalu and the absent Waisake Naholo in the current squad were involved when Taranaki last had it in 2012.
Despite Canterbury’s formidable home record in recent seasons, Ta’avao believed they were more than a match for the defending Mitre 10 Cup champions.
’’One hundred per cent,’’ he insisted. ‘‘I back the boys against anyone, we were at the top of the table before they played their game in hand, so we’ve got every right to go down there and perform well.’’
One important focal point when playing Canterbury was to minimise mistakes and Ta’avao said that fact had been talked about during their preparation.
‘‘Classic Canterbury teams feed on your mistakes and like you to play a lot in your own half. But we’ve talked a lot about doing our things right, exiting well and putting pressure on them while scoring points when we get the opportunity.’’
Ta’avao was also delighted to have Charlie Ngatai back in the match-day squad after he was cleared on ongoing concussion problems.
‘‘He’s feeling good and to have that sort of expericnce coming off the bench will put us in good stead in the later stages of the game.’’