Counties young guns shoot down Canterbury
Counties Manukau defeated Canterbury 29-21 in an NPC pre-season rugby game at Pukekohe’s ECO-Light Stadium on Friday, giving them a confidence boost heading into the new season.
Canterbury coach Scott Robertson said this game came as a wakeup call for his team following their 50-33 win over Wellington the previous week, and he admits they’ve got work to do.
‘‘Last week we converted nearly everything, so it’s a bit of a turnaround,’’ Robertson said.
‘‘There might have been a bit of a mental shift from us in a couple of areas.
‘‘We started really poorly in both halves and they took their opportunities. There were a lot of forced and unforced errors and a lot of parts of our game we need to work on.’’
Canterbury’s cause was hindered by poor preparation, with the team arriving at Auckland Airport just two hours before their game.
After landing, they had a 42km bus ride to Pukekohe and Robertson admitted it was far from ideal preparation.
‘‘It’s not pure high-performance landing two hours before the game, but that’s just the way it is with budget constraints,’’ he said.
‘‘It’s a pre-season game so you just do it, it’s a test of character.’’
For Counties, who lost their other pre-season game to Taranaki 35-10, this was a good turnaround.
‘‘There were positives for us in a lot of aspects,’’ Counties coach Tana Umaga said.
‘‘There were areas we worked on in our last game around the ruck area and creating quick ball.
‘‘It was also pleasing that we could make some changes and give some really good minutes to guys who are new to this level.
‘‘For a young side like ours it’s great confidence, but we emphasised this week that it’s not about the score and whether we won or lost.
‘‘We really wanted to set the tone and we’ve been talking about Manawatu for a week, that’s our real focus and we were making sure our structures were right.’’
It didn’t take the Steelers long to get into the game, as Gafatasi Su’a scored a push-over try in the corner after just six minutes.
In the 25th minute, Canterbury’s Rob Thompson scythed through the defence to score a try, after Counties failed to retain a line-out close to their line.
Counties halfback Richard Judd, who played for Thames Valley last year, scored tries either side of the break. Canterbury struck back in the 50th minute with a try to Mitchell Dunshea.
But former Blues flanker Onosai’i Auva’a and wing Sione Fifita scored two further Counties tries. Twelve minutes from time Jack Stratton from Canterbury scored the games’s last try.