Praise for attitude in face of mauling

Wairarapa-Bush coach Kelvin Tantrum was in a realistic mood when assessing his side's 62-6 mauling at the hands of Poverty Bay in Gisborne on Saturday.
Tantrum knew his side would have to produce their best form to come away from the Heartland championship fixture with any of the spoils but on the day Wairarapa-Bush endured a nine-try mauling and were outplayed by an opposition, which Tantrum describes as "way above anything I've seen at Heartland level. They were exceptional".
Tantrum conceded the five-try blitz Poverty Bay inflicted on his side early in the second half destroyed the game as a contest.
"They were just so explosive, so quick. Their pace was electric. We couldn't live with that," Tantrum said. "We knew we were still in it at halftime. The score was only 15-3 and we'd come back strongly in to the game before the break. But all of a sudden to go from 15-3 down to 50 something inside the space of 10 or so minutes - well, there was no comeback from that. We just couldn't get our hands on the ball for any length of time. Credit to our guys, though, they got down to business again and were competitive for the rest of the game."
Tantrum praised the Poverty Bay support play, their off-loads and their ability to exploit half gaps in particular and conceded it was a level above what his own side had produced on the day.
"The scoreline is horrible but they didn't drop their heads, nobody played badly and the attitude of the players was great," he said.
Tantrum also praised his forward pack. "The set pieces and lineouts both went well. I was pleased with that.
"Obviously the guys were shattered at the end of it and the mood in the changing room was pretty glum but we'll have a good debrief and move on from there."
Tantrum singled out prop Kurt Simmonds for his "exceptional work rate, tackling and huge tackle count". He also commended lock Andrew McLean for his strong game, Jesse McGilvary for his stout defence and Byron Karaitiana, who also defended strongly when he came on.
Wairarapa-Bush lost Cyrus Baker to a knee injury after 25 minutes and No8 Mana Faraimo didn't reappear for the second half. Winger Junior Togia hadn't travelled with the team either but Tantrum wasn't using that as an excuse. "We just to accept we were outplayed on the day."
The weekend's loss has seen Wairarapa-Bush drop to fifth position in Pool B of the Heartland championship with the two remaining pool games, against East Coast this weekend followed by what should be a sterner test against North Otago, looming as "must win" encounters if the side want to progress to contest the Meads Cup.