Nice venue, horror scoreline for Canterbury [The Press]
Tasman routed a Cantabrians XV 61-7 in a pre-season match at the Kaikoura Rugby Club yesterday.
The Cantabrians, comprised of Christchurch metro club players, couldn't match the power of the near full-strength Tasman outfit that contained Super Rugby players such as Quentin MacDonald Joe Wheeler.
Coach Scott Robertson, who will name his Canterbury NPC squad on Sunday, said the expectation of his side winning had to be weighed against the fact his team was stacked with amateur clubmen - including four 18-year-olds.
"Some of those guys were pretty impressive for their debut at this level but what you saw was difference between club level and the next step up to the ITM Cup," Robertson said.
Robertson, who didn't select any Crusaders players because they are on leave, rotated 30 players during the game.
He is expected to name up to 23 Super Rugby players - including Canterbury-contracted Highlanders Colin Slade and Nasi Manu - in his NPC squad.
Robertson, who has replaced Tabai Matson as Canterbury boss, was also mindful of giving the Crusaders time to recover from their 20-19 defeat to the Chiefs in last weekend's semifinal.
"They have come off a really deep, cutting loss."
Canterbury's opening NPC match is against Taranaki on August 16.
