It's early days, give team a chance

Coach Bruce Hodder is imploring Northland rugby followers not to cast judgement on his team too early as preparations for their provincial campaign step up a level in Hamilton tonight.
Northland play Waikato tonight, the second of two non-first class pre-season fixtures, and will meet Counties Manukau in Whangarei on Saturday-week in the final dress rehearsal before the opening championship match against Wellington in Whangarei the following week.
But after some scathing comments on his team after Northland lost to North Harbour on Tuesday night, Hodder was keen to emphasise the positives, saying his team is determined to be competitive in the Air New Zealand NPC this year.
"Blues coach David Nucifora felt that the Northland will be competitive with any team at lineout time and I thought we were competitive, particularly defensively against North Harbour," Hodder said.
"From within the team they felt they let in soft tries after defending well in a system and I thought they `gutsed' it out when they were put under pressure," he said.
"We did not want to give too much away either.
"As an example we just used two lineout options, so that's something the public needs to understand too before they start making too many judgments.
"A couple of the positive things I saw on Tuesday were the form of David Holwell and Allen Tubbs who both slotted back in pretty comfortably, particularly Tubbs who was playing his first game back at that level for a couple of years."
Punch-drunk Northland rugby followers are still reeling from two winless seasons in the Air NZ NPC first division, bookended each year by one-sided victories in promotion-relegation games at the end of the campaign.
Desperate for signs of life, rugby fans are pensive as they new season looms, a factor Hodder acknowledges.
"There has been some negative comment (after Tuesday) but the game finished with North Harbour scoring five tries to our two and we gifted them two with an intercept in a situation where we would have kicked for touch in an NPC game.
"We handed them the other when we got a bit confused on set phase defence," Hodder said.
"That sort of thing is understandable in a pre-season game.
"We will make sure that doesn't happen (tonight) and work on the things we know we got wrong," he said.
"Waikato will throw up some new problems and challenges but I feel that the pieces are falling nicely into place.
"We were missing a number of key individuals early in the season for games against Manawatu and Poverty Bay but they are back and we are making progress."
A host of young players will make their Waikato representative rugby debuts in Hamilton tonight in the absence of many front-liners.
Ten players from the pre-season training group are unavailable as they are playing in the Waikato Breweries Shield premier club championship final at the same venue tomorrow, while four others are away with the All Blacks.
Both skipper Jono Gibbes and halfback Isaac Boss are injured.
That means New Zealand under-19 open-side Vern Kamo and 20-year-old Te Rapa blind-side/lock Mark Burman will start on the sides of the scrum, while Morrinsville's Brendon Leonard, 20, will be at halfback and James Kamana on the left wing.
Giant loose-head prop Philemon Toleafoa will also make his Waikato debut, while those in the reserves who have not previously played at this level include Sam Biddles, Marc Morunga, Steven Setephano and Waylon Tangohau.
The teams are. - Northland: Jared Going, Isoa Neivua, Manu Burkhardt Macrae, Quin Butler, Aaron Baigent, David Holwell (c), Tom Fleetwood, Mesake Davu, Aaron Wright, Allen Tubbs, Brad Taylor, Buster Taihere, Simon Lemalu, Tim Dow, Stan Wright. Waikato: Richard Kahui, Sosene Anesi, Mark Ranby, Dwayne Sweeney, James Kamana, Derek Maisey, Brendon Leonard, Steven Bates, Vern Kamo, Mark Burman, Sean Hohneck, Toby Lynn, Deacon Manu, Jamie Muir, Philemon Toleafoa.