Stags Wrap: Illness, injuries, and a team that's not clinical enough
“We had a fair bit of adversity this week and we wanted to see where we were at as a team because you need to be able to handle it and we just couldn’t quite."
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Taranaki 39 (R Riccitelli, A Lenox, T Franklin, K Naholo, J Setu tries; J Jacomb 4 con, 2 pen), Southland 24 (S Withy, J Strachan, F Peni, D Nel tries; B Smith 2 con). HT 29-10.
Tribune MVP points: Dylan Nel 3, Semisi Tupou-Taeiloa 2, Morgan Mitchell 1
Overall points: Dylan Nel 5, Morgan Mitchell 4, Sean Withy 3, Isaac Te Tamaki 2, Semisi Tupou-Taeiloa 2, Viliami Fine 1, Rory van Vugt 1.
The Southland Stags were provided a decent dose of adversity last week offering coach Matt Saunders a gauge as to where they are at as an NPC side.
Illness swept through the Stags squad on top of a growing injury list.
And the answer to where this Southland group is, at the moment? It’s a team Saunders is certain can knock over the best teams in the competition, but right now are not clinical enough.
Southland was beaten 39-24 by defending NPC champions Taranaki at Rugby Park in Invercargill on Saturday night. Seven days earlier the Stags lost 31-17 to the other 2023 NPC finalist Hawke’s Bay.
Southland handed Taranaki far too many opportunities as they raced out to a 29-10 halftime lead, which included a try on the stroke of halftime that proved to be a killer blow.
“It’s frustrating because we are not far away from the top teams, but the last two weeks have shown us we are not quite there either,” Saunders said.
“They are more clinical than us…. It’s all about being clinical right - clinical goal-kicking, clinical lineout. Everything.
“We make one error in [defence] and we get skinned by [Jacob] Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens. They are the little errors that we still make that the top teams don’t make. That’s all it was.
“I can probably show you 10 things that we cut out and we would be right in the hunt. It’s frustrating because everyone can see we can compete, but we are not there to compete, we’ve got to win.”
Frontline props Jack Sexton and Morgan Mitchell missed a week’s training last week because of illness.
With the depth tested the Stags coaches decided to include the pair in the 23, although they started them from the bench.
They drafted in former Manawatu prop Sean Paranihi to start on the loosehead side of the scrum despite his preferred spot being on the tighthead side.
It meant Hamdhan Tuipuloto got the start at tighthead.
The Stags scrum found itself under pressure in the first half, but it started to dominate Taranaki when Mitchell and a Sexton were introduced two minutes into the second half.
Impressive midfielder Faletoi Peni was another hammered by illness last week. He too was named on the bench and introduced early into the second half.
Lock-cum-looseforward Daniel Maiava was initially expected to be included on the bench, but he also was struck down by illness.
It meant flanker Leroy Ferguson was required to return a week earlier than expected from a knee injury on Saturday night with just the one full training on Thursday under his belt.
“There’s been a lot of illness and they didn’t train. Again, that’s no excuse, we should have been better, but [Mitchell, Sexton, Peni] missed training and they have been bloody unwell.
“They did bloody well to do what they did [in the second half],” Saunders said.
“We had a fair bit of adversity this week and we wanted to see where we were at as a team because you need to be able to handle it and we just couldn’t quite.
“But we are not far away, and we’ve got some cattle coming back in the next month which is going to be nice.”
Those to return over the next month or so include Hayden Michaels, Michael Manson, Matt Whaanga, Joe Walsh, and Blair Ryall. In a big blow halfback Connor Collins has a fractured bone in his hand and his season might be done.
Probably Southland’s biggest Achilles heel in the 39-24 loss to Taranaki on Saturday night was a jittery lineout.
Southland headed into Saturday night with the best lineout in the competition with just the one light blemish through its first two games.
But it all came crashing down on Saturday night as a malfunctioning lineout handed Taranaki far too much ball to work with and meant Southland couldn’t build sustained pressure.
“That really hurt obviously,” Saunders said.
“When you are giving them that much possession in the first half like that, it’s hard.
“With a team like [Taranaki] we had to dominate possession, and we didn’t so it’s 39-24.”
It’s not panic stations yet as Southland now eyes game four on Friday night against Northland in Whangarei. Although it does feel that if the 2024 Stags want to make a statement that this team is on the improve, a victory against Northland is a must.
“You don’t want to put ‘must-win’ on anything because it’s all about getting our process right which we are not doing, but [Friday night] is pretty important,” Saunders said.
“We’ve played the two finalists from last year over the past two weeks, so it’s an opportunity next week. But Northland is dangerous, they’ve got good coaches.”
Included in that Northland coaching mix is head coach Dale MacLeod who spent four years with Southland.
Former Stags players Chris Apoua, Tevita Latu, and Lisati Milo-Harris are also in the Northland squad this year.
Latu was particularly impressive for Northland in its 55-30 Ranfurly Shield loss to Hawke’s Bay on Friday night.
“It’ll be a hell of a week with a short turnaround. If you are not on in Northland it is a tough place to play,” Saunders said.