Softly softly as ousted Lions are own worst enemy
Time for a little experiment.
Let’s assume you’re a longtime Wellington fan but didn’t watch Saturday’s provincial rugby semifinal against North Harbour.
If you were told the final score at Westpac Stadium was Harbour 40 Wellington 37 would you instinctively imagine the visitors produced a superb performance or that the Lions gave the game away?
Of course they did. They wouldn’t be Wellington if they hadn’t.
But while the rest of us have come to expect a certain outcome from the Lions, the team themselves were struggling to comprehend this latest loss.
‘‘It was a bit of an up-and-down season. We knew we had the team [to win the competition] and I still believe 100 per cent that we have the team to do it,’’ Wellington captain Brad Shields said.
‘‘It felt in a couple of these last games that we almost chased the game too much, rather than sticking to our structure. Classic [example] today, where we were always chasing the game.
‘‘I back ourselves to win that 20 maybe 25-0 and we showed we can score points, but it’s just letting them in for soft tries that killed us.’’
Harbour were 10-0 up before you knew it and although Wellington replied with tries to hooker Leni Apisai and wing Wes Goosen, any good work was undone by conceding soft tries from set pieces either side of halftime. At 30-18 the visitors had the game won with 30 minutes still remaining.
The Lions might’ve added tries to wing Joe Hill, replacement hooker Asafo Aumua and halfback Sheridan Rangihuna, but they had no impact upon the result. It meant Wellington suffered the embarrassment of losing their last four matches.
‘‘Probably summed up our entire season,’’ Wellington coach Earl Va’a said.
‘‘We looked good at times but, when we needed to execute our moves or our skills, we turned over ball and gave them a way out of the situation.’’
Va’a went on to lament pushed passes and ‘‘miracle balls’’ that ‘‘we don’t see on the training field and then we see here. Our 25 turnovers to their 14 sort of sums that up,’’ he said.
Wellington’s best rugby was very good against Harbour. But the difference between that and some of their poorer moments was too vast to warrant victory.
Harbour scored from one lineout and two scrums, which were situations the Lions should have been able to defend. The other try came after Harbour centre intercepted a Mark Reddish pass.
The sad fact is few teams are more adept at engineering their own demise than the Lions.