Aupiki: Preview Round 2

Blues v Manawa and Matatū v Poua

Last weekend started with a bang! I arrived at Levin Domain and was pleased to see a healthy crowd in attendance. Underlining again for me the logic of the Red Roses tactic of getting rugby out to the regions to build a proper vibe.

And there was merch, glorius merch! The Hurricanes setting up a little pop up table at the grounds. They quickly sold out of the replica jerseys so I’ve had to pop online to pick one up. The day got even better when our team debuted their haka and then backed up this challenge with three quick tries. I may or may not have been having a wee dance at this point.

But this is a team from the Hurricanes franchise. I should have known that such good things couldn’t last. When we rang in our 21st point in the 22nd minute, turns out that was the beginning of the end.

The Chiefs Manawa began dismantling our lead, starting up front. You all know I love scrums. Heck, the only tattoo I have celebrates that fact. There’s stuff you could say about ball security, penalty counts and general fitness levels but I believe our scrums were our ultimate undoing. They pushed us over our tryline to score off a try and they crucially sent Krystal Murray to the bin for popping out of a scrum. They got six, six!!!! tightheads (for those less rugby or our backline… that’s when the other team gets the ball even though you put it in). I am happy birthday if I get one of those in a match. So I would have to question how Luka Connor’s head fit inside the plane back to Hamilton.

You lose that part of your set piece, you lose so much possession. I would argue it’s worse than if you can’t control your line-outs cause if that happens you have options on a penalty and only have to worry when a ball goes into touch. Whereas when you’ve lost your scrum, every spillage or wayward pass is a turnover. You can put in some great defence (and they were) but it doesn’t matter if you end up handing the ball right back.

So that will likely be where most of the Poua’s focus has been in this last week. They need to sort these scrums out because this week they are down in Christchurch playing Matatū and another Black Ferns front row. Poua beat Matatū last year by bullying their pack. That’s the ruthlessness they need to tap into again on Saturday.

Matatū were brilliant at the breakdown last week against the Blues. Lucy Jenkins and Kendra Reynolds amongst those leading the charge. The old adage, a kick is only as good as it’s chase was highlighted by the work of Jenkins in the lead up to their first try. She was right there on the hunt of a handy nudge through by Rosie Kelly.

Rosie Kelly was a standout performer for the Matatū

Kelly looked like she had all the time in the world last Saturday and put in a performance which will make Black Ferns selectors take notice. She’s yet another one of these incredibly versatile players New Zealand seems to have a talent at developing. Kelly can confidently play at 9, 10 or 15 which will only help her progression to higher honours. Her combination with Grace Brooker was key to the Matatū’s success.

What will concern Matatū from last week’s match against the Blues, is the Poua also play a fluid running game. Once the offloads started to stick for the Blues, that lack of structure on defence caused them trouble. They struggled to get into their defence into shape without the ruck as their anchor. The Poua will bring the same being a team that will throw what you shouldn’t to keep defence guessing.

The Blues were always a side that was going to get better as the weeks go on. There are just too many experienced campaigners for them to not back their own abilities. They were just a kick short of a robbery in Dunedin and the momentum they had built in the second half you have to believe would have been enough to carry them in extra time.

A note on extra time because I hadn’t picked this up myself. It appears that like the men’s Super Rugby competition, the Golden Point Extra Time rules apply if a match is drawn after 80 minutes.

Golden Point Extra time is an extra 10 minutes played at the end of the match which is concluded when any point is scored (try, penalty or drop goal) or when time runs out. If time runs out, then it is a draw and everyone is 10 minutes more tired.

They now host the mighty Manawa this weekend. The only thing you could nitpick about their performance from last week was perhaps a tendency to kick the ball away a bit much rather than getting into the hot hands of Carla Hohepa, Tenika Willison and Georgia Daals. If they adopt this tactic again this weekend, the Blues will be only too happy to run it back at them.

We saw these two packs square up against each other in pre-season. The green front row of the Blues held themselves pretty well against the Manawa and they have my hero, Toka Natua, to call in as backup.

Will the Manawa remain a step above the rest of the competition or will the Blues be up for the challenge? This is the game of the round that I’m most looking forward to and lucky for me, it’s the first one this weekend.

With you,

Alice