Mauger stays upbeat despite latest setback
Moana Pasifika coach believes his team is making progress. By David Long.
Aaron Mauger is sending his Moana Pasifika team out to win every week and even though for all but one game this year they haven’t achieved that, he can keep smiling.
Moana Pasifika lost 26-20 to the Waratahs at Mt Smart Stadium in Auckland last night.
It was another close defeat for the young team and a painful one given that they were up 17-0 in the first half.
Abraham Pole and Levi Aumua scored tries for Moana Pasifika, while Christian Lealiifano kicked a penalty to bring up his 1001st point in Super Rugby, becoming just the seventh player to reach that milestone.
But they got blown away at scrums, made too many errors and a more clinical Waratahs side got their noses in front and dealt with huge pressure over the last few minutes, before Moana Pasifika’s Ezekiel Lindenmuth spilt a pass ball a metre from the line.
‘‘It was another winnable game,’’ said Mauger, who was clearly feeling mixed emotions.
‘‘I thought we played the better footy, right across the park. There were a couple of soft moments and set-piece execution which were the difference.
‘‘The key thing for us is that we’re getting ourselves into positions to win these games and can still take a lot of belief. But I know the boys are pretty gutted.’’
Given how tough the task was to form a Super Rugby team from scratch, mainly without star players, and be competitive in year one, Moana Pasifika can’t be judged solely on the win and loss columns this season.
Mauger feels that this defeat and the 26-22 loss to the Rebels last weekend show that they’re actually ahead of where many thought they’d be.
‘‘We set our team up to win games of rugby every week,’’ he said.
‘‘At the start we were focusing on how much we can grow through the year, but we’re in a position now where we’re setting out to win these games.
‘‘There have been two winnable games in the last couple of weeks, so we’re probably ahead of where we should be.
‘‘If you look at the lead into our season and the challenges we’ve had, I think we’re well ahead of where some might expect us to be.
‘‘If you go back to January 5, we hadn’t even assembled as a team before, you could probably be right in thinking we might go 0 and 14 this year.
‘‘We’ve got a result once and we’ve been knocking on the door for another five or six.
‘‘The fact that we’re there, we take a lot of belief forward and it’s only a matter of time before we turn those games into 15-20 point wins.
‘‘I love the way we’re playing,’’ he added. ‘‘I keep saying to the boys, play with courage. Be prepared to do something different. We don’t want to play like everyone else and that’s the most pleasing thing for me, that our boys are backing themselves.
‘‘It hasn’t always come off, so you’ve got to be disciplined and still make good decisions, but I think we’re only going to get better. This is just the start for this team and it’s exciting.’’
Next weekend Moana Pasifika take on Fijian Drua at CommBank Stadium in Sydney.
It will be the first time Super Rugby’s newest teams will go up against each other. It’s irrelevant that it is also probably a battle to avoid the wooden spoon and it should be a wonderful celebration of rugby.
‘‘How exciting? Two new teams going at it next week,’’ Mauger said.
‘‘I’ve really followed their season. I know Mick Byrne [Fijian Dura coach] pretty well, we sat down and had a good chat a couple of weeks ago and shared where we’re at at this stage of our journeys.
‘‘The challenges we’ve had and they’ve had are very similar, in terms of off the field and on it, when you’re starting up a brandnew team with a short lead in time.
‘‘That’s the beauty of the game,
we’re competitive out on the field, but the thing I love about the footy game, which I’ve been involved in since I was five years old, is that it’s one big family around the world.
‘‘We’re really excited, it’s going to be an awesome occasion next week, a bit of fire meeting fire.’’