Magpies coach proud of youngsters
Hawke’s Bay head coach Mark Ozich believes his side deserved a bonus point in yesterday’s Mitre 10 Cup loss to Canterbury in Christchurch.
There were plenty of positives for him and his players. The main one was he made 10 changes to his starting XV and the youngsters stepped up and showed they should cope if there are injuries at the business end of the season.
“Yes, the youngsters keep coming,” Ozich said referring to the likes of No 8 Devan Flanders, who had his first start; halfback Folau Fakatava, who played the entire game; centre Shae Tucker, who made his debut; winger Michael Buckley, who celebrated his first start with a try; Danny Toala, who made his maiden firstclass appearance off the bench; and loosie Solomone Funaki, who also made his Magpies debut as a replacement and provided quality impact. “It’s easy to focus on the youngsters, and they deserve all the recognition they get, but let’s not forget the contributions from those experienced club players like Jason Long, Mark Braidwood and Geoff Cridge,” said Ozich.
“We left five experienced players [prop Ben May, regular captain and No 8 Gareth Evans, fellow loosie Marino Mikaele-Tu’u and midfielders Pasqualle Dunn and Stacey Ili] at home because they’ve played a lot of minutes.
“Yet we were still able to compete and dominate the breakdown for long periods. But Canterbury have a lot of depth, and when they turned the ball over, they were hard to stop.”
Canterbury are beginning to peak for the business end of the season and that showed particularly during the second half after the hosts led 21-10 at halftime.
Canterbury 49 (Braydon Ennor 2, Alex Hodgman, Tom Christie, George Bridge, Mitchell Drummond, Connor Garden-Bachop tries; Brett Cameron 7 cons)
Hawke’s Bay 24 (Sasa Tofilau, Michael Buckley, Folau Fakatava tries; JJ Taulagi 3 cons, pen). Halftime: 21-10.
● In yesterday’s other Mitre 10 Cup match, Championship side Northland edged Premiership team Counties Manukau 24-20 at Pukekohe to leave the Steelers just two points ahead of bottom-placed Taranaki with two games to play.