Taranaki face familiar foe
It shouldn’t take Taranaki rugby fans too long to think back to the last time they sat down to watch a home semifinal confident they had a decent chance of booking a place in the Mitre 10 Cup premiership rugby final.
It was 363 days ago, to be precise.
That was when Tasman headed to Yarrow Stadium, outplayed their hosts and left with a comfortable 41-29 victory.
It should act as a thumping reminder that Tasman are more than a decent team and if a few things go their way, they are easily capable of upsetting Taranaki.
They’ve got the talent, they’re well coached, they’re capable of scoring points rapidly and you also get the impression they damn well love beating Taranaki.
On the plus side, Taranaki have not been at all shabby over the latter stages of the 2017 season, they should all be well rested after most of them had the weekend off, while they’ve got in form players in key positions.
Add in home advantage and they should have an edge. Maybe.
While the round robin match ended in a 40-26 win for Taranaki, their semifinal opponents played the vast majority of the match with 14 men and even some of it with 13.
‘‘Tasman are a very good side, so having a lot of home support is very important,’’ Taranaki coach Colin Cooper emphasised this week. ‘‘To play a semifinal here in front of a big crowd really gives the team a boost.’’
Cooper, who potentially could be coaching Taranaki for the last time, knows too well the threat Tasman possess and how they will have to perform to come out on top.
‘‘We have to have good quality ball to play an expansive game and
that comes from players doing their key roles well, carrying strongly, being accurate, getting good go-forward ball and making good decisions about when to go wide,’’ he said.
‘‘Defensively we must respect them. They are a good side and we have found them tough to beat in the past. They have a good scrum, have a lot of individual talent, and a great coaching team with a lot of experience, so we’ll have to be at our best.’’
Tasman are also not short on self-belief, something that was
clearly evident in coach Leon MacDonald’s comments.
‘‘It’s going to be a hell of a challenge to go there and win but we are definitely confident ... we have won tough games on the road this year, against good teams,’’ he said. ‘‘ We know that we are in the hunt.’’
MacDonald also chose to rest a number of key players last week and while influential halfback Billy Guyton has been ruled out after failing to recover from a head knock, they are near full strength and have depth in their reserves.