Think smart? says coach

Wairarapa-Bush rugby coach Peter Russell wants his team to play a territory-based game in their Heartland championship match with South Canterbury at Memorial Park, Masterton on Saturday.
Russell has been prompted to move in that direction because of a tendency by his team to try too much in their own half and often to their own detriment.
"We're not saying not to attack if it's on, rather we're saying play the percentages when in your own half," Russell said. "If there is a big danger in moving the ball wide then don't do it."
The Wairarapa-Bush coach says the change in tactics won't necessarily mean his side putting more boot to ball than what has been the case in previous Heartland matches.
"Kicking is just one option, you might gain greater benefit by having the forwards take the ball up for a few more phases than what they have doing," he said. "It's all about making the right decisions at the right time and we have enough experience to do that."
Russell said his side had reflected at some length on their Heartland campaign at training on Tuesday night and while they were obviously pleased to have won all six of their games they were not over-enthused at their level of performance.
"I think everyone understands that we can, and must, do better," he said. "We have done a lot of good things along the way but there is still plenty of scope for improvement and that's where the focus is."
Russell agreed that "interesting" refereeing interpretations had been a frustration for his side in most matches and the message on Tuesday was that rather than challenge the referees and risk being penalised or sin-binned the concentration had to be on managing them.
"I suppose what we are saying is that we have to hide our frustrations and work out quickly what the referee will allow and what he won't," Russell said.. "It's not ideal of course because you train to play to the letter of the law but the referee is the sole judge on the day and you have no real alternative but to play it his way."
Russell is anticipating a South Canterbury team desperately needing a victory to stay in contention for the Meads Cup semi-finals adopting similar tactics to those utilised by Horowhenua-Kapiti last weekend with the emphasis being on getting in the Wairarapa-Bush faces and constantly disrupting the flow of the game.
"We didn't respond too well to those tactics in certain areas last Saturday so we're expecting South Canterbury to niggle away at us too," he said " But hopefully we are better prepared this time to handle that sort of thing."
Russell isn't particularly fazed by the problems experienced by Wairarapa-Bush in the lineouts against Horowhenua-Kapiti where winning ball on even their own throws was the exception rather than the rule. He said it was simply a case of the mindset being too relaxed and he was confident the same hassles wouldn't occur again.
"In lineouts you have to have the thrower, the lifters, the catchers all tuned in to what is happening and we didn't have that last weekend," he said. "Those involved know full well what went wrong and how to remedy it."
Russell is confident too that the Wairarapa-Bush defence will be able to cope with anything South Canterbury throw at them. He points to statistics which show his side have missed only five per cent of their tackles in close-to-the-line situations in Heartland games, a percentage considerably lower than all other teams in the same competition.
"Our defence under pressure has been fantastic and that can make all the difference between winning and losing in tight games," he said.
Russell has named the same starting XV for Saturday's game as that which initially took the field against Horowhenua-Kapiti.