Harwood 'frustrated as hell'

Gary Caffell
Ask Wairarapa-Bush skipper Joe Harwood for his reaction to his team under-achieving in Heartland rugby championship play this season and you get an honest answer.
Harwood is "frustrated as hell" at Wairarapa-Bush finding themselves in the bottom section, the Lochore Cup, after winning the premier title, the Meads Cup, two years ago and finishing fourth there last season.
"Honestly, I'd love to be able to come up with some sort of excuse but I can't," he said. "All I can say is we should have done better, and all of us know it. No one is happy, I can tell you that."
Harwood is adamant Wairarapa-Bush could -indeed should- have won all five of their pool A games.
"We haven't played a team we couldn't beat, it's as frustrating as hell to know that," he said.
The 44-19 loss to North Otago in Oamaru last weekend would suggest they were a class above Wairarapa-Bush but Harwood says that was anything but the case.
For starters he still finds it difficult to understand how the match officials could rule out a try scored by Wairarapa-Bush early in the second spell which would, with a successful conversion, have had them trailing North Otago by just three points
The detecting of foul play by a touch judge (or assistant referee as they are called these days) led to the referee overturning the try and awarding a penalty to North Otago but Harwood remains unconvinced that the alleged offence which was retaliatory in nature deserved that fate.
"There was all sorts of things happening off the ball right through the game and most of it went undetected & or at least they weren't pulled up," he said. "We know retaliation isn't the way to go but sometimes you lose sight of that on the spur of the moment, don't you?"
Harwood said Wairarapa-Bush actually competed strongly against North Otago for all but a brief period when some defensive lapses allowed the home team to run in three tries. "Apart from that we gave them every bit as good as they gave us, there wasn't anything in it."
Blaming their preparation for his side's slide into the Lochore Cup holds no water with Harwood.
"Probably the most disappointing thing of all for the players is that the huge amount of work the coaching staff and their support team have put in isn't being reflected by the results," he said. "They have all done a great job, anybody who says different doesn't know what they are talking about."
Harwood also led Wairarapa-Bush when they won the inaugural Meads Cup title in 2006 and reflecting on the strengths and weaknesses of that side compared to that of this season he believes the main difference to be the solidity of their defence.
"Our defence won us a lot of games in 2006, we were very strong in that department," he said. "Teams would find it hard to break us open and they'd make mistakes and we would capitalise."
This season, however, Wairarapa-Bush had too often allowed opposition teams to run in tries from movements started inside their own territory because first up tackles had been missed
"We've tended to defend really well on our own line, it's further out where we are letting ourselves down. We've had too many tries scored against us from well out."
Harwood is confident the disappointment of missing out on the Meads Cup won't have an adverse effect on how Wairarapa-Bush perform in their Lochore Cup campaign which kicks off with a pool game against Thames Valley at Memorial Park on Saturday.
"It's not where we want to be but we've got to make the best of it," he said, adding that the team had been "rapt to bits" to have Sir Brian take time out from another engagement to actually talk to them before the match in Oamaru last weekend. "Sir Brian is a legend and he's one of ours, winning his trophy is an extra incentive for us."