Loss baffles Bush skipper

Wairarapa-Bush skipper Kurt Simmonds is just as puzzled as anyone about the reasons behind his team's stunning fall from grace in the 2014 Heartland rugby championship.

A Meads Cup semi-finalist the previous two seasons, Wairarapa-Bush capitulated badly this time round, winning just one of their eight games and having only East Coast behind them on the points table at the end of the qualifying rounds.

Simmonds is adamant the string of disappointing results were not caused by disharmony or lack of preparation.

"The team spirit was great, we had no, absolutely no problems in that regard," he said. "The guys got on well and were trying their hearts out in game after game."

Simmonds said head coach Mark Rutene and his assistant Paddy Gough were always thorough in their planning, spending literally hours analysing the opposition and formulating tactics to counter their strengths. "They tried their hearts out too, anybody who says different doesn't know what they are talking about."

What rankles Simmonds most about his team's overall performance is a strong belief they had the potential to do better ... much better.

"There is a hell of a lot of talent in this squad , certainly enough for us to think we were going to have a pretty good season." he said.

Simmonds does wonder, however, whether at least some of the players struggled to come to grips with the difference in standard between club rugby and Heartland rugby.

"I think it may have been a bigger step up than some of the boys realised and they took a while to become adjusted."

Not helping that adjustment process either was a slow start which saw Wairarapa-Bush become entrenched near the bottom of the points table from the word go.

"If you get a couple of early wins the confidence grows and we did just the opposite," Simmonds said. "When we've done well in the past we've started well but this time it didn't happen."

As would be the case with any captain the number of basic handling and passing errors which blunted Wairarapa-Bush's effectiveness all season were a constant frustration for Simmonds but he can't put his finger on why that was the case.

"Obviously you don't go out there to purposely drop the ball ... maybe we were just trying too hard to get things moving. There were way too many basic errors, that's for sure."

Simmonds agrees too that Wairarapa-Bush were all too often on the receiving end of a hefty penalty count and while he admits he was "pretty confused" with some of the rulings he also knows that once referees have made a decision they are not about to change it.

"At the end of the day they are in charge and players have to cope with their interpretations, and I guess we struggled with that."

Disappointing as this season's Heartland season was Simmonds is still looking forward to the 2015 season with optimism.

"Every team has its off years and this just happened to be ours," he said.

"We'll learn from this and bounce back."