Makos beat Otago in final pre-season hit-out [Nelson Mail]
STOP MOTION: Tasman substitute No.8 Vernon Fredericks offloads in the nick of time.
There were just as many questions as answers for the Tasman Makos' coaching staff at Trafalgar Park yesterday.
Despite the satisfaction of a 26-13 pre-season representative rugby win over Otago, Tasman coach Kieran Keane suggested that he and assistant coach Leon MacDonald would be using every available moment to knock their team into shape ahead of their NPC championship opener against Southland on August 17.
Following the ease of Wednesday's nine-try romp against Canterbury in Kaikoura, Tasman were brought back to earth by a much more competitive Otago side.
Tasman eventually outscored Otago by four tries to one with wing Bryce Heem scoring two superbly executed first-half tries on the back of some excellent counter-attacking play. But, while Tasman clearly showed plenty of positive, attacking intent, the execution was well below what Keane expected of his players following their much more clinical efforts of four days previously.
Of Tasman's 10 clean line-breaks, they converted only three of them into tries, while their effective scrambling defence restricted Otago to just a solitary second-half effort by substitute flanker Gareth Evans.
It was a thought-provoking performance for both players and management, although the execution of both Heem's first-half tries in particular indicated that when Tasman gets it right, they'll be well worth the price of admission. For Keane though, much of it was far too frivolous for his liking.
"We've got a serious amount of work to do judging by that," said Keane after yesterday's performance.
"That brought us back to reality very smartly, that was a very inaccurate performance. There were a lot of mistakes, a lot of poor decisions, a lot of loose, frivolous play. Then all of a sudden we get it right and we look OK.
"So it lacked a lot of discipline, both in terms of the laws of the game and our own option-taking. It wasn't the improvement we really wanted to see from the Canterbury fixture.
"But, having said that, there were some bright moments."
Keane acknowledged the positive intent of his players, particularly in the leadup to Heem's two tries in which strong, incisive running and clinical draw and pass execution by the backs gave the New Zealand sevens star plenty of room to manoeuvre on the outside.
"That's the danger that we bring and if we can become a much more disciplined and professional outfit, we'll be able to hurt some teams," Keane said.
"Everything's fixable, but we do have to get their heads right too. It's not a lack of skill or anything like that, although today probably exposed a mindset that was still a bit of a hangover from the game on Wednesday when things came so easily."
Tasman had taken a 12-3 lead into the break, reduced to 12-10 12 minutes after the restart when Evans finally broke through to score Otago's only try. Otago took a brief 13-12 lead following a Hayden Parker penalty, before quick thinking by Tasman's impressive substitute No 8 Vernon Fredericks saw him dive across handy to the posts from a free kick close to the line.
Tasman's 19-13 lead quickly became 26-13 after some clever interplay between flanker Shane Christie and substitute halfback Willie Alaiasa saw Christie finish off another counter-attacking movement.
Tasman's defence did enough to minimise any potential Otago attacking threats, although Keane again pointed to eight Otago line-breaks and the inability of tacklers to cut the attack off at the source.
"Defensively we were OK, without being dominating. We scrambled well and we worked on D together, so that was pleasing. But we didn't dominate and they breached us an awful lot - but [they] couldn't convert either."
Winning ugly has some obvious merits, although after the positivity shown in Kaikoura, there's clearly much more substance to this squad that another two weeks of hard, productive work should help to realise.
"We've got a week together now in camp so we can come together a bit more and spend a bit of time, because we looked rusty [today] and completely off colour."
Tasman now head into a four-day camp starting tomorrow in Picton.
FINAL WHISTLE
Tasman Makos 26 (Bryce Heem 2, Vernon Fredericks, Shane Christie tries, Billy Guyton 3 cons) Otago 13 (Gareth Evans try, Hayden Parker pen, con, Peter Breen pen) Ht 12-3.
