Canada critical game for Maori
THE Maori All Blacks’ tour to the UK may be a brief trip away to England with three matches crammed into 10 days, but lock Jason Eaton says Saturday’s game against Canada will be the defining moment of the trip.
Having suffered a surprise 32-24 loss to an under-strength Leicester Tigers side on Thursday, the Maori All Blacks play a Championship Select XV in the early hours of this morning and then finish up playing Canada in Oxford.
With Canada coached by Kieran Crowley and Neil Barnes, who both used to coach Eaton at Taranaki, there will be a fair amount of familiarity between the two sides.
‘‘They will know more about us than most overseas coaches to be honest,’’ Eaton told Sunday News.
‘‘It is going to be a huge game for them, they’re obviously trying to get more tests against top flight teams and they’ve performed well over the last couple of years.
‘‘It will be a good hit-out and we can call the tour a success if we get a win over Canada.’’
The defeat to Leicester was a huge blow for the Maori team, but Eaton suggests the little time the team has had together didn’t help.
‘‘It was pretty disappointing and we have a proud history in this team,’’ he said.
‘‘We had won quite a few in a row but it probably goes to show that we’d only been together for a week.
‘‘Leicester played well, but we had the chances to win and didn’t capitalise on them.’’
Maori teams have always been known to have a strong musical influence, with a guitar coming out at plenty of occasions. For this tour it appears that Bay of Plenty’s Willie Ripia has been the best strummer.
‘‘The best guitarist this year is Willie and he’s the best singer,’’ Eaton said.
‘‘Hika [Elliot] has got a good voice and he’s not afraid to use it.
‘‘There’s a good crew and there are plenty of others who play the guitar, but Willie is the main man.’’
While Leicester is a hotbed of English rugby, Doncaster ( where they played the Championship XV) and Oxford certainly aren’t and Eaton says there hasn’t been that much attention on the team so far.
‘‘In Leicester the crowd was amazing, they’re really into their rugby and they appreciate the style of rugby we play and we got a great reception after the game.
‘‘Away from the games we go under the radar a bit,’’ he added.
‘‘People only recognise us in England because we’re wearing jandals and shorts and everyone else is rugged up, so that’s the only attention we get in the streets.’’