Tasman's young bucks given torrid rugby lesson by Wellington in trial

Some of Tasman's younger prospects got a harsh reminder of the realities of first class rugby following the Makos High Performance XV's heavy 41-12 pre-season loss in Wellington on Wednesday.

Although not officially a first class fixture, Tasman were facing a Wellington High Performance unit brimming with power and size.

It featured new recruit, lock Sam Lousi, who recently signed with the Hurricanes after two seasons with the Warratahs. It also included several New Zealand Under-20s players, Hurricanes wing Wes Goosen and Samoan international loose forward Greg Foe.

And it showed, the home team eventually running in seven tries to two after leading 19-5 at halftime. Second five-eighth Alex Nankivell, one of the standout performers in Tasman's effort, scored their first half try, with substitute first five-eighth Andrew Knewstubb scoring late in the game.

Tasman head coach Leon MacDonald said it was a much more physical examination than that provided by a Counties Manukau XV several weeks ago.

"It definitely was tougher. They were just another step up for a lot of our boys," MacDonald said.

"They were really physical and they were a big, powerful team with a lot of big ball-carrying forwards and we really struggled to stem their momentum at times. So it was definitely a bit of an eye-opener for a few of our younger players I think."

Wellington maintained possession for long periods, meaning they were able to build plenty of pressure.

MacDonald said that on the basis of their two pre-season fixtures, Tasman were likely to be one of the smaller sides in this year's competition.

"So technically we've got to be perfect in our clean-out technique and our body height in contact. We found we were too high at times today and they made us pay every time we did it. It's an area we've been working hard on but still needs a lot of work.

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"Our handling was poor at times as well, so we never really built any pressure by holding on to the ball. We were our own worst enemy at giving them the ball with silly little basic handling errors and then we'd spend long periods of time on defence which really sucked a lot of energy out of us."

There was some light amid the gloom. Tasman's smaller scrum competed well and the lineout was effective.

Props Blair Prinsep and Tom Hill backed up solid efforts against Counties Manukau with strong games and winger Tima Faingaanuku ran strongly. Besides Nankivell, new halfback Finley Christie impressed with his clearance, sniping runs around the fringes and defence.

"There are a lot of players to come back in and the areas that we've struggled in a little bit, we know we've people coming in who will reinforce that," MacDonald said.

"I suppose the biggest issue that we've got is making sure that we've got good depth...and a lot of these guys need to do a lot of work physically to be able to match the physicality.

"The scoreline wasn't great, but we played a lot of rugby out of our own half...and leaked a few tries through turnovers. So it's probably not as dire as the scoreboard suggested, but we're definitely going to have to improve in a lot of areas."

Wellington HP XV 41 (Jackson Garden-Bachop 2, Wes Goosen, Greg Foe, Asafo Aumua, Jonathan Fuimaono, Peter Umaga-Jensen tries, Garden-Bachop 2 con, Pakai Turia con) Tasman Makos HP XV 12 (Alex Nankivell, Andrew Knewstubb tries, Knewstubb con) HT: 19-5