Tasman XV downs Manawatu in pre-season
BYPETER JONES [Marlborough App]
A Tasman Mako XV showed their pre-seasonpreparation is coming together nicely with a decisive 47-15 win over theirManawatu counterparts in Porirua today.
With their Mitre 10 Cup campaign kickingoff on August 17 against Canterbury, the 2017 runners-up gave their build-up atimely boost with a performance coach Leon MacDonald described as "a goodwin in the end”.
The Mako led 21-5 at the break and ranin seven tries overall while showing defensive resilience to limit theiropponent’s opportunities.
"Overall we are pretty pleased withhow we fronted”, said MacDonald. "Our defence was outstanding. We heldthem out with good maul defence close to our line on three or four occasions.
"We created a lot in attack as wellso we were pretty happy with both our attack and defence.”
A few players put their hands up forselection in the Mako squad for the NPC campaign, including former NorthHarbour hooker Ray Niuia.
"Ray had an outstanding game … his throwing was good and he gave us somereally good go-forward with his ball carries,” said MacDonald.
"Vernon Fredericks stepped up anotch and looked like the Vernon we are used to seeing in the Mako jersey. Thatwas really pleasing. Jed Brown was also good, he’s really fitting into thegroup well, on and off the field.”
MacDonald was also impressed with the70-minute effort of fullback Will Jordan, the 2017 Mako standout becoming alate inclusion in the team, plus fellow pacy outside back Jamie Spowart.
He said while it was a heartening effortthere was still plenty of work to be done before the cup competition kicks off.
"A lot of the players had theirmoments but it wasn’t a perfect performance – we blew three or four goodchances, making line breaks then seeing passes go over the touchline or behindthe support players. There’s still plenty to be done around cohesion.
"The group is changing continually.We have players like Will [Jordan] coming in at the last minute and our Superplayers will be coming back in at different times.”
TheMako’s final pre-season game is against Wellington in Renwick on Thursday,August 9, with a 2pm kick-off.
MacDonaldexpects to have the Super rugby players from the Highlanders and Chiefs backfor that clash, their participation on Thursday dependent on their season’sworkload so far.
Scores:Mako XV 47 (Tries to Caleb Havili, Will Jordan, James Hawkey, Nick Foxley,Willie Havili, penalty try, Jesse MacDonald, six conversions) Manawatu XV 15.HT 21-5.
