In rugby parlance it’s referred to as storm week
There are some less-kind references as well, but we’ll stick to calling it storm week - that challenging quirk of the Mitre 10 Cup season that sees unions play three games in the space of eight days.
When the Beatles sang about eight days a week, it’s unlikely they were thinking about rugby players putting in three solid shifts over the same period.
‘‘It’s a difficult one,’’ an understated Zero Fees Southland Stags coach Dave Hewett explained.
‘‘This has been my first time preparing for a storm week, although we have learnt a bit from some of the shorter weeks during this campaign. The priority is the players and their ability to perform - get back on the field in such a short turnaround.’’
The Stags take on Bay of Plenty at Invercargill’s Rugby Park on Sunday, hoping to knock over a Steamers side which is coming to the end of its own storm week.
Then it’s a tight turning circle before they take on a wellperforming Auckland team at Rugby Park on Wednesday night, before heading to Palmerston North to close out the season against Manawatu.
‘‘When you go Sunday-Wednesday-Sunday, those two days in between are really important. You can’t really train as we would like to, it’s essentially a tracksuit run and recovery. Although we are preparing for Bay of Plenty, we are really preparing for all three games,’’ Hewett said.
‘‘The guys are in a good space, but it is going to be physically demanding. We have to manage those guys that are carrying niggles, as well as get information into them.’’
The nature of the next week lends itself towards a generic game plan, which sits comfortably with Hewett because he can see the positive progress the Stags are making this season.
‘‘Bay of Plenty will be playing us at the end of their storm week, so it’s a chance for us to execute the systems that we have been putting in place,’’ Hewett said.
‘‘Every week we’ve talked to the boys about the fact that if we stick to our systems then we create opportunities, as we did in the first half against Waikato. It’s when we don’t stick to our systems that things unravel, because no one knows what they are doing. If we stick to our systems on defence and attack, then we will get a really good performance.’’