From P36//Gardner’s ‘new rules’ still bewilder
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‘‘We possibly didn’t give the team enough clarity around what was required,’’ he said.
The Hurricanes did their best to review the game yesterday, but with Nehe Milner-Skudder, Ngani Laumape, Jordie Barrett, Beauden Barrett, TJ Perenara, Ardie Savea, Vaea Fifita and Jeff To’omaga-Allen away at this week’s All Blacks camp, there was some important intellectual property missing.
All the same, they know what they would do different if they got a third crack at the Crusaders this season, having won 29-19 in Wellington on March 10.
‘‘We’ve got to have our drivers understanding what the plan is and make sure that everyone understands what the drivers want and probably go about our business more accurately,’’ Plumtree said.
‘‘We’re not blaming anyone. The coaching team’s disappointed and we’re all disappointed in ourselves, to be honest. We’ve let ourselves down in that regard and we’ve just got to make sure that doesn’t happen again.’’
The Hurricanes now meet the Highlanders in Dunedin on Friday, with perhaps a couple more forwards to pick from. Fifita’s injured shoulder is said to be improving, while No 8 Gareth Evans is out of a moonboot and hopefully over his ankle niggle.
The only injury concern from Friday is lock Michael Fatialofa, with a knee.
Jono Gibbes is sticking with the Mooloos after the Waikato Rugby Union confirmed he will be their next head coach.
Gibbes had met with La Rochelle prior to his last game in charge of Ulster earlier this month after the French club parted ways with Patrice Collazo, their head coach since 2011.
But Gibbes has committed his future to Waikato and was back at FMG Stadium Waikato yesterday.
John Plumtree can laugh now.
Rewind to Friday, though, and the Hurricanes assistant coach wasn’t finding referee Angus Gardner quite so amusing.
The Hurricanes lost 24-13 to the Crusaders in Christchurch and deservedly so. They’re the first to tell you that. Their gameplan was inadequate, they executed poorly, lost discipline and were duly punished by the home side.
But that doesn’t mean some of Gardner’s calls weren’t comical.
Putting aside the knock-on in the lead-up to Mike Alaalatoa’s second-half try, decisions such as the penalty for a tackle on Crusaders back Seta Tamanivalu or the knock-ons that were ruled when David Havili dropped balls into the lap of team-mates standing in front of him really were hard to fathom.
They also made it unnecessarily difficult for the Hurricanes to gain any momentum or impose themselves upon proceedings.
‘‘You’ve got to put them down softly. It’s a game of rugby,’’ a laughing Plumtree said of the Tamanivalu tackle.
What? And then lay their head on a pillow?
‘‘Yeah, no, that was an interesting one. Clearly they felt we put him to the ground too hard, which we’ll have a look at. I’m not quite sure how we’re going to go about that.’’
How about if I stand in front of you and catch a ball that you’ve dropped? Am I offside or am I sweet?
‘‘No, technically you’re offside,’’ said Plumtree.
Just not last Friday.
‘‘No, new rules,’’ Plumtree said with a smile. ‘‘No, I shouldn’t be . . . look, they do their best out there, but there was one or two calls that didn’t go our way. But there was some other stuff that we could’ve controlled as well, that we didn’t, so we’ve got to look at ourselves more than we look at the officials.’’
That includes Plumtree, head coach Chris Boyd and the rest of