Quentin MacDonald to join the 50 game club [Nelson Mail]
Quentin MacDonald can't bear the thought of a repeat performance.
On Sunday, the Tasman Makos' hooker joins Robbie Malneek, Jonathan Poff, Mark Bright, Andrew Goodman and Joe Wheeler as the latest inductee into the Tasman Rugby Union's Half-Ton Club.
And he certainly doesn't want the occasion ruined by a re-run of the error-ridden team effort that saw the Makos unexpectedly lose to North Harbour in last Friday's ITM Cup championship clash in Albany.
MacDonald plays his 50th game for the province on Sunday, just two weeks after his team-mate and good friend Wheeler achieved the same milestone. Wheeler got to celebrate his big day with a stirring 49-16 win over Otago, so MacDonald's hoping for exactly the same response from his team-mates against Hawke's Bay in front of friends and family at Trafalgar Park.
"It's a big occasion for me and I'll definitely have a lot of family come over the hill," said the Blenheim-born rake.
Firstly though, the team must significantly readjust their attitude and improve their accuracy against an unpredictable Hawke's Bay team that leapfrogged Tasman into first place on the championship standings after the Magpies' 31-26 win over Northland last Sunday.
MacDonald certainly wasn't about to abdicate responsibility for what he said was an unacceptable allround team performance against bottom-placed North Harbour.
"Everything went wrong. I don't think it was just one person that played badly, I think we all did, so that didn't really help the cause," he said.
"We just didn't help ourselves, we made too many mistakes . . . I guess it was just one of those games."
He said that everyone had taken the loss to heart.
"We've just got to have a really good look at the game and take the lessons out of it. There were different little situations we hadn't been in all season . . . and with little things not going right, we've just got to take a real good look at it. It was a frustrating game.
"It was a bit slippery, but we just didn't look after possession . . . we lost about 28 balls or something and I don't think I've ever seen a team that's lost that much. It wasn't just one person, it was the whole team."
There's obviously added incentive for MacDonald to help get Tasman over the line on Sunday, although the bottom line remains their quest for valuable championship points. Four are a must, with five a satisfying bonus.
MacDonald acknowledged that while Hawke's Bay were the kind of team "that can bust you open", he said you were never quite sure what they'd bring to the contest.
"I guess that Northland game was a prime example - they didn't turn up in the first half but turned it up in the second half.
"We've just got to play our game and the rest will come, hopefully."
MacDonald would have already played his 50th game for Tasman had he not missed the entire 2010 representative season with a severe knee injury. He'd debuted off the bench in Tasman's narrow 25-23 loss to Waikato in 2007 at Blenheim's Lansdowne Park, however briefly.
"Yeah, I think I played all of four minutes," he joked.
He was just a couple of weeks shy of his 19th birthday at the time and he turns 25 next Wednesday. But he's already packed plenty of rugby experience into his solid 102kg frame.
The former Marlborough Boys' College skipper was also part of the New Zealand under-20 team's inaugural 2008 Junior World Championship success in Wales and has since played for both the Crusaders and Blues Super 15 teams. Last season he was selected in the Maori All Blacks, with hopes of reselection in the side for their tour to North America in November.
Until then, MacDonald's thoughts rest solely with helping Tasman try to secure a home championship semifinal. Celebrating his 50th with Tasman's fourth win of the season would be the ideal starting point.
"I think we'll be geared up for it better than [North Harbour]. We'll take a lot of learnings out of it. We can't all play that badly [again] in one game.
"I'm very excited, I can't wait for it."
