We haven't played our best, says coach

North Otago rugby coach Mike Mullins is predicting some entertaining fare when his team takes on Wairarapa-Bush in their Heartland championship top-of-the-table pool A match at Memorial Park, Masterton on Saturday.
Mullins has only brief knowledge of the Wairarapa-Bush side but understands they like to play an attractive, open style of rugby similar to that favoured by North Otago.
"From what I've seen on television they (Wairarapa-Bush) have some pacy outside backs and obviously they'll want to bring them into the game as much as they can,' he said.
Mullins said North Otago too preferred to move the ball wide whenever the opportunity was there to do so.
"We have plenty of pace and flair out wide as well and we're always looking to utilise it as much as we can," he said.
"We've run in three or four tries from 80 metres out already this season and so, yes, you could say we definitely like to place the emphasis on attack."
This is Mullins's first season as North Otago coach, having come to Oamaru after spending seven seasons as both as a player and a coach for the Munster club in Ireland.
And Saturday's game will represent his first visit to Masterton since coming here as a North Harbour midfield back about 15 years ago.
Mullins believes North Otago are still to play to their full potential this season despite having accumulated 14 competition points from three wins in as many matches, one point more than Wairarapa-Bush.
They started with a 67-3 thumping of West Coast and then beat Mid-Canterbury 38-16 and Buller 37-24.
While delighted with the scoreline against West Coast he believes North Otago were fortunate to strike them first up.
"They were struggling with combinations then but when you look at their scores since they're obviously a lot tougher proposition now," he said. "We did run in some good tries though and that's always a help to confidence."
Mullins said the victories over both Mid-Canterbury and Buller were hard earned with North Otago battling to get into continuity into their play.
"I'd say we did enough to win those games without being really impressive," he said.
"Against Buller it was only in the last 10 minutes where we took control, up until then it was anybody's game."
Mullins expects the North Otago forwards to be conceding weight to their Wairarapa-Bush counterparts but he hopes they can make up for that with greater mobility.
"We certainly don't have a big pack but they can all get round the field pretty quickly," he said. "We have a lot of handy ball runners there too??a bit like Wairarapa-Bush from what I gather."
Six members of the North Otago squad are "imports" from the neighbouring Otago union but one of them, first-five Shane Bloor, will almost certainly not be part of the starting line-up this weekend.
He was knocked out in the first minute of the match against Buller and will very probably not only miss the Masterton match but the next two as well.
Also under an injury cloud is second-five and skipper Karne Kaufana who didn't play against Buller because of a bruised shoulder and was rated by Mullins as no more than a 50-50 chance to take the field on Saturday.
Mullins said his starting XV would not be named until tomorrow night at the earliest with 26 players currently being involved in the squad, and all of them were pressing hard for selection.
"We do have good depth in the team and the competition for places is a big help in keeping everyone focussed," he said. "Everybody wants to play in this game of course, it's obviously the big one so far this season and they're all keen to be there."