Coach has no excuses for loss

No excuses are being offered by team management for Wairarapa-Bush's 26-40 loss to a Hawke's Bay XV in the representative rugby match played at Memorial Park, Masterton on Monday.
Coach Peter Russell conceded the 19-0 halftime lead was probably never going to be enough in a game where Hawke's Bay had the bitterly cold breeze at their backs in the second spell.
"We needed a bigger lead than that and we should have had it," Russell noted, pointing to a number of missed scoring chances for Wairarapa-Bush in the opening 40 minutes.
"There were opportunities to extend the lead and we didn't take them.
"You just can't afford that at this level," he said.
Russell said his players had often lacked tactical nous with too much ball being needlessly kicked away and there had been too many turnovers, especially in the tackle situation.
"Ball retention was poor in the contact areas and again that's just asking for trouble in games like this," he said.
"Possession can be hard enough to win without giving it to the opposition as soon as you go to ground."
Russell wasn't happy either with some of his side's defensive work, especially around the fringes of the rucks and mauls. "We let them get momentum up and we couldn't afford that either," he said.
The fact that Hawke's Bay practically changed their whole team in the second spell wasn't seen by Russell as a huge factor, with Wairarapa-Bush bringing on a number of fresh legs as well.
"They (Hawke's Bay) revolved their tactics around a couple of playmakers and we gave them too much time and space to organise things," he said.
It wasn't all doom and gloom for the locals though with Russell being particularly pleased with their strong start which saw them pin the Bay deep in their own territory for a lengthy period.
"We had talked about the need to fire up right from the word go and the forwards certainly did that," he said.
Pleasing too for Russell was that after conceding 40 points in the second spell Wairarapa-Bush had the final say on the scoreboard with a late try.
"It's easy for teams to slacken off when things are going against them, so that last try at least said something positive about the team's character," he said.