From the Press (Chch) yesterday.........
Plenty to work on for Canterbury By HAMISH BIDWELL
Canterbury have some work to do before Friday's first national provincial championship match this season against Hawke's Bay.
Beaten 25-19 by Wellington in their last pre-season outing yesterday, the red-and-blacks will need to be a lot better if they are to avoid losing three competition-openers on the trot.
You can argue about whether pre-season footy counts for anything, but at 25-0 down yesterday Canterbury looked anything like two-time defending provincial champions.
On the plus side, they've beaten Wellington in every game that's counted in the past two seasons, including both finals and a Ranfurly Shield challenge.
"It was a bloody good battle," Canterbury coach Rob Penney said after the match at Linfield Park.
"They were in pretty good shape and turned up and gave us a bit of a lesson really, in a number of areas."
Among the things Penney had wanted to see was a sounder defensive structure. Well, he certainly saw them tackle because, between their own inability to hold the ball and referee Kane McBride's whistle, Wellington had all the football.
"I was pretty pleased with our defence after one week's work on it but, yeah, they controlled possession and particularly controlled that first 40.
"They played fantastic rugby, I thought, in the conditions and we played some reasonable footy at times but we made a lot of errors and we had no ability to maintain possession in that first half, so that side of it's a bit disappointing.
"But on the upside, a lot of our defensive work was a big improvement from last week [against Tasman]."
Despite dominating possession and territory, it took Wellington 23 minutes to break the deadlock via a try out on the left wing side from prop Neemia Tialata. First five-eighth Fa'atonu Fili added a penalty soon after before fullback Apoua Stewart completed the first-half scoring with a try in the right-hand corner.
No8 Faifili Levave scored their next try soon after halftime and then wing Julian Savea intercepted a Colin Slade pass near his own line and raced 95 metres to score. Hayden Cripps' conversion made it 25-0 with about 15 minutes to play.
For Canterbury there were consolation tries to flankers Brendon O'Connor and Matt Todd (2) and a couple of conversions from Colin Slade.
Todd was probably Canterbury's best player, followed closely by props Wyatt Crockett and Peter Borlase.
Lock Isaac Ross hobbled off after 20 minutes, while All Blacks hooker Corey Flynn played 40 minutes. Ryan Crotty was good at second five-eighth and wing Patrick Osborne was busy.
SCORERS
Wellington 25 (Neemia Tialata, Apoua Stewart, Faifili Levave, Julian Savea tries; Fa'atonu Fili pen, Hayden Cripps conv) Canterbury 19 (Matt Todd 2, Brendon O'Connor tries; Colin Slade 2 conv). HT: 13-0
Just reminding you R & B fans that you can't take your dominance for granted!
Cheers,
Baz
