Tasman sinks at Harbour [Nelson Mail]
Friday the 13th - what could possibly go wrong?
Where the Tasman Makos were concerned, there was little that went right for them as North Harbour inflicted another shock ITM Cup rugby defeat at a wet North Harbour Stadium in Albany last night.
Harbour are fast becoming Tasman's bogey team after claiming their fifth win in the six encounters between the two unions. And last night's 23-12 win mirrored last year's embarrassing Trafalgar Park defeat in many respects as the bottom-placed Harbour team got up against the odds to once again bury the more fancied Tasman side.
It also continued Tasman's frustrating trend of never having scored three consecutive wins following previously healthy winning margins against both Counties-Manukau and Otago. Last night though, Tasman simply weren't in the frame.
Rampant Tasman inaccuracy, after they'd led 12-6 at halftime, eventually gave Harbour the confidence and impetus they needed to score the game's only two tries.
Big tighthead prop Ben Afeaki scored the first following a crooked defensive scrum feed inside Tasman's quarter just nine minutes after the restart. Impressive No 8 Vili Fihaki took the quick tap before Afeaki eventually bullocked his way across the line, No 10 Jon Elrick's conversion giving the home team their first lead at 13-12.
The first half had been dominated by penalty kicks, with Tasman's territorial dominance and Harbour indiscipline at the breakdowns giving Tasman fullback Marty Banks every opportunity to test his accuracy. He landed four penalties, with Elrick kicking two, his second virtually on the stroke of halftime, as Tasman took their six-point lead into the break.
If Afeaki's try signalled a shift in momentum, Tasman's mounting error-rate and terminal mishandling enabled Harbour to sustain pressure inside Tasman's territory for much of the second half.
Tasman thought they'd finally scored 25 minutes into the half when right winger Robbie Malneek went in at the corner after a lengthy buildup, only for referee Ben O'Keeffe to rule a forward pass from Banks in the final transfer. But the game was made safe for Harbour just five minutes from fulltime when their second five-eighth Francis Saili broke clean through Tasman's line from an attacking scrum to seal the win.
While Tasman's scrum was again strong and applied constant pressure on a beefy Harbour pack, Tasman coach Kieran Keane struggled to find any positives from a performance he described as a "coach killer".
"I don't think the weather had too much to do with it, it was more about the state of mind," said Keane.
"We never got up for the game at all. I thought we had one of the best training weeks we've had this season and we were feeling quite positive about what we were about to embark on and nobody turned up.
"We took short-cut after short-cut, we made mistakes by taking more short-cuts and things compounded."
Keane cited 11 handling errors inside the first 50 minutes alone as just one of several key factors in Tasman's loss.
"Mis-tackles, riding tackles, penalties - the momentum just swung away from us and we went into our shells."
Keane insisted that the loss of second five-eighth Tom Marshall with a severe bout of flu prior to the match had no bearing on the performance.
"There were no excuses. We had ample opportunity today and we chose every poor option we possibly could in that first half and it was very disappointing. I suggest it's a big wake-up call for this team.
"The only positive I can see in the game is that it happened earlier in the season, as opposed to later, and it'll be yet another lesson for Tasman."
Tasman flanker and captain Shane Christie was obviously just as frustrated by his team's efforts.
"We didn't stick to our game plan and we went away from our systems," he said.
"It was disappointing, but we'll move on, we've got a long way to go in the competition yet. Physically we were up for it but our attitude, mentally we weren't quite there."
However, there were predictably contrasting emotions from Harbour's captain and hooker James Parsons.
"We talked about it all week, we focused on physicality and bringing a mental edge and we've finally done it," he said.
"Finally passes have stuck. Honestly it feels so good because we've put a lot of work in and a lot of [people] are slating us, but we've done the hard yards . . . I'm so proud of the boys today."
Tasman at least now have a lengthy nine-day turnaround before they face Hawke's Bay at Trafalgar Park next Sunday.
