Mauger: Red and blacks not far away

Only a handful of Canterbury’s squad were alive the last time the red and blacks started an NPC campaign 0-3.

As for assistant coach Nathan Mauger, he was a year 10 student at Christchurch Boys’ High School in 1992, when the proud province last made such a substandard start to a campaign.

‘‘It’s been fairly frustrating for everyone involved,’’ Mauger said ahead of the team’s round four clash with Southland in Christchurch tomorrow.

Dead last in the premiership, Canterbury sit eight points adrift of the all-important top four and are practically in must-win territory.

To think they entered the season as favourites to win a 10th title in 12 years, only to start the year with narrow road defeats to Waikato and Wellington, and a heavy loss to Tasman at home. They won’t say it themselves, but the good news for Canterbury is battlers Southland are next, a team which hasn’t won a game in almost three years.

Indeed, only the Stags and their 24-match losing streak are on a worse losing run than Canterbury among national provincial championship sides.

However, after visiting reigning champions Auckland next weekend, Canterbury have a favourable runin and it shouldn’t surprise anyone if they kick on and qualify for the finals.

‘‘Whilst it’s been frustrating, we actually feel like we’re not too far away from delivering the type of performances that we think we’re capable of and that we can be proud of,’’ Mauger said.

‘‘So, look, the big focus for us this week is on individuals, just making sure they’re executing and nailing their own roles.

‘‘That’s an area where we can be better and that’s been coming through in our reviews as well. Just bits of detail, little bits of detail missing in the game within our structure and systems, and that all adds up.’’

Canterbury have made a whopping 11 changes to their team from the one which lost by one-point to Wellington last week, highlighted by the return of All Black Ryan Crotty and wing Patrick Osborne.

Halfback Mitchell Drummond is also over the calf injury which sidelined him the past two weeks, but there is no sign of unwanted All Blacks Braydon Ennor, who is on bereavement leave, and prop Owen Franks.

‘‘Moving forward, he [Franks] will spend some time in our environment. However, not putting a time frame on when he will play for us,’’ Mauger said.

‘‘The priority for now is giving him some time and space to freshen up and just to give him some time to process things a wee bit because we know he will be hurting.’’

Osborne, who last played for Canterbury in 2015, has joined the team for the rest of the year after missing out on Fiji’s World Cup squad, while Saturday’s match is expected to be Crotty’s last for his province as he clocks up some much needed minutes in his long-awaited return from a broken thumb.

He’ll play outside youngster Fergus Burke, a member of the NZ under-20s, in what will be his first Mitre 10 Cup start.

‘‘It’s a great opportunity, it’s a wee bit of adversity. In hindsight, adversity is always a good thing,’’ Crotty said. ‘‘The boys aren’t far away. A couple of tough games, a couple of really close games. We’ve got to focus on execution this week. If we can do that we’ll give ourselves a good chance.’’