We let ourselves down, says coach

Wairarapa-Bush let themselves down in their 37-31 loss to West Coast in the Heartland rugby championship opener at Memorial Park, Masterton on Saturday.
That's the verdict from coach Kelvin Tantrum who believes that while West Coast played well their task was made easier by some slack Wairarapa-Bush defence. "We missed too many tackles, far too many," he said.
"We weren't aggressive enough in that part of the game, and it cost us in the end."
Tantrum's admits the defensive deficiencies caught him by surprise as the sureness of their tackling had been a feature of Wairarapa-Bush's previous match against Wellington B.
"We went into this game thinking it would be one of our strengths and that made it even more frustrating," he said. "We just weren't focused enough defensively, that's all there was to it."
Wairarapa-Bush went into Saturday's match without having scored a try in their lead-up games and Tantrum was delighted they got that monkey off their backs by scoring five on this occasion.
But, at the same time, he lamented the fact his team also conceded five tries, most of them because of defensive blunders.
"I think most people would agree that we had to work hard to create our tries while they (West Coast) were basically gifted two or three of theirs," he said. "That was the big disappointment, no doubt about that."
Tantrum also considers Wairarapa-Bush were deficient in the option-taking department, too often looking to launch attacks from inside their own territory when the opposition defence had them well covered.
"We needed to be a bit more conservative, to concentrate on playing the game at the right end of the paddock," he said. "We were being caught behind the advantage line and immediately you are on the back foot when that happens."
Tantrum had also been hoping for Wairarapa-Bush to build on the pleasing impression they had made in the lead-up games in the set pieces of scrum and lineout but while they held their own in those departments they had not dominated.
"I would say we went sideways rather than forwards when it comes to progress in those areas," he said. "We were good enough but we were hoping for better."
Tantrum is confident, however, that Wairarapa-Bush, who picked up two bonus points from Saturday's match, is still capable of making a decent impact in the Heartland championship, and he is keen for them to support that sentiment with a winning effort against South Canterbury in Timaru this coming weekend.
Whether changes will be made to the starting line-up for that particular game will not be decided by team management until tomorrow, at the earliest, but Tantrum did say some "tweaking" could be done.
Among those who were on the reserve bench against West Coast flanker Mike Wilson is probably the best bet to earn promotion as he was originally scheduled to start in that match but was stood down almost at the eleventh hour because of sickness.
South Canterbury will also, of course, be keen to break their "duck" as they were surprisingly beaten 18-17 by Buller in their Heartland first round encounter.
Meanwhile, the Wairarapa College first XV were beaten 22-0 by Wanganui Collegiate in their Manawatu secondary schoolboys semi-final match on Saturday after trailing 12-0 at halftime.
Wanganui Collegiate scored three tries from forward drives and another from some neat blindside work and they were too strong physically in conditions so shocking they were labelled as worse than that experienced in that memorable water-logged Eden Park test between the All Blacks and Scotland several years ago.
Similar ground conditions also prevailed for Saturday's Manawatu under-15s fixture between Wairarapa College and Feilding which ended in a scoreless draw.
The Wairarapa College first XV now head to the Hurricanes Co-Ed tournament in Palmerston North with their opening match this Thursday being against Hawera High School.