Better days ahead, promises Tantrum

Wairarapa-Bush rugby coach Kelvin Tantrum is determined to stay "upbeat and positive" despite his team's 16-try 98-0 thumping by a Wellington XV at Memorial Park on Tuesday.
It was a baptism of fire for Tantrum, who only became coach after the initial appointee Earl Va'a resigned to take up a more lucrative coaching position in Japan, and while he didn't enjoy seeing his side slaughtered he says the focus remains fairly and squarely on being competitive in the 2008 Heartland championship.
"You can't lose too much sleep over results like that, it's important to stay upbeat and positive and that goes for the players too, "Tantrum said.
"Obviously it wasn't what we wanted but there are better days ahead&&.there has to be!"
Tantrum said playing a Wellington XV which had already beaten the Chiefs and Blues development squads and contained mostly players contracted to the Wellington union was always going to be a huge ask.
"They were a very, very good side, well organised ,well disciplined and pacy ," he said..
"Quite honestly any of the Heartland teams would probably have their hands full coping with them."
That said, Tantrum was disappointed with Wairarapa-Bush's hesitancy on defence, noting several of the Wellington tries eventuated through the locals allowing the initial ball carrier too much time and space to choose their options.
"We tended to stand back and let them run at us and against teams of their calibre that is just asking for trouble" he said.
"Any hint of an overlap and they are basically over the line before you know it."
Tantrum would have also liked to have seen greater fire from the Wairarapa-Bush forwards in the contact situations. "We did do better in the second half, especially in the rucks and mauls, but overall we were too tentative, we have to be a lot more physical ," he said.
With the Wellington XV attaining at least 90 per cent of possession (and even that is being kind to the locals) Tantrum and his assistant coach Mike Robinson were unable to assess their team's attacking potential, something which Tantrum conceded was frustrating because it meant the value of strategies formulated at recent training sessions could not be properly gauged.
"We had come up with a few ideas on how to attack them but you need the ball to put them in place and we got precious little of that," he said.
"So really nothing was achieved in that respect at all."
The magnitude of Tuesday's beating has, not surprisingly , again raised questions over the sense of Wairarapa-Bush taking on the Wellington XV and Air New Zealand Cup sides Hawke's Bay and Manawatu as part of their build-up to the Heartland competition.
Tantrum is loathe to publicise his views on the basis he is new to the job and is still coming to grips with the history of why things are done but he said it was clear the gulf between the professional and semi-professional sides and the Heartland teams was getting bigger by the season.
"There is an absolutely huge difference now and it's not going to get any better in that respect," he said.
Tantrum said it was important for both participating teams that their non-championship matches allowed them the chance to develop all parts of their game and therefore one-sided affairs like that against Wellington were often not hugely beneficial to either side.
"I guess that's something which needs to be looked at but that's for the administrators to decide, isn't it?".
Tuesday's game also had a number of Wairarapa-Bush supporters leaving the grounds openly discussing the need for Tantrum and his management team to "import" talent from outside the region to strengthen their Heartland squad.
Tantrum said that option would not be looked at with any seriousness until after the Queens Birthday weekend match with Hawke's Bay. Only local talent will be utilised there and Tantrum is hopeful; they will perform well enough to convince him that no "imports" are required.
"We've always said we will give locals every chance to put their hands up and nothing has changed in that regard," he said.