New blood 'sound' in Makos loss [Fairfax]

Tasman Makos rugby coach Kieran Keane hoped that some of his younger charges would heed important lessons in the wake of yesterday's 24-22 pre-season emerging players loss to Canterbury in Glenmark.

A 90-metre intercept try to Canterbury left wing Williams Saukuru with seven minutes remaining - the second for the pacey threequarter - enabled the home team to escape with a narrow win after Tasman had led 10-5 at halftime and 22-17 with time running out.

With Tasman missing nine of their Super Rugby players, yesterday's outing was an opportunity to blood some young new players and, for the most part, Keane was satisfied with what he described as a willing contest.

"We've got some [inexperienced] boys who probably appreciated playing at that level, so it was very much a step up and they were blowing pretty hard after 20 minutes," Keane said. "The score was unimportant really, but there were some lessons to be learned from it. It'll be great for those players to play at that higher speed and more intensity and also to know that if you make a mistake, you're dead . . . so they've got to take that on board. It was a pretty sound performance."

The scoreline was indicative of an even contest.

"It was a very good arm-wrestle, the defences were probably the two most interesting aspects, there were a lot of mistakes in both attacks," he said. "It was well contested. In the first half we got outplayed around the breakdowns and the tackle area, but in the second half we came right in that regard and had some very good periods on attack."

He said the set phases were "excellent" in the first half, Tevita Cavubati prominent in the lineouts and the scrum solid and secure. Timing and communication issues led to second-half frustrations with the lineout, though the scrum continued to dominate. "Apart from that, everything was pretty evenly contested and the young fellas fronted up almost to a man. It was a good tussle between two young and very inexperienced sides."

Second five-eighth Mike Wells and Cavubati scored Tasman's first-half tries, with hooker Seb Siataga crossing for Canterbury.

Winger Ben Tyler and halfback Shawn Begg completed Tasman's second-half scoring as Saukuru, twice, and Richie Mo'unga kept Canterbury's scoreline ticking over.

Hooker Quentin MacDonald led the team well in the first half, with lock Alex Ainley complementing those efforts as the team's second-half leader.

Jeff Lepa had a solid all-round game, particularly after moving from lock to loose forward in the second half, and prop Siua Halanukonuka was prominent during the first half. Begg added some spark in the second half, while Wells produced a typically controlled performance.

Tasman now head to Dunedin where they'll be joined by former All Blacks halfback Jimmy Cowan before Saturday's game against Otago at Forysth Barr Stadium. Kickoff is at 2.30pm.

Canterbury Emerging Players 24 (William Saukuru 2, Seb Siataga, Richie Mo'unga tries, Broc Hooper 2 cons) Tasman Makos Emerging Players 22 (Tevita Cavubati, Mike Wells, Ben Tyler, Shawn Begg tries, David Havili con). HT: 5-10