Rugby: Brains trust quietly confident of capital gains

Orcades Crawford

Hands up if you are surprised at how well the Hurricanes have done this season.

I'm with you guys. However, ask Hurricanes assistant coach John Plumtree if he and fellow members of the Canes coaching staff believe they have exceeded expectations and there's an emphatic no.

"We put a lot of pressure on ourselves from the start of the season because we thought we had the team to do well in this competition. We've put plans and strategies together and these have been backed up with on field actions," Plumtree explained.

"We've really stepped up this year. Our defence has improved a lot, along with our levels of game management and our attack has been effective."

"We've got a good group of guys. Conrad Smith is a great leader and everyone enjoys each other's company on and off the field," Plumtree said.

The Hurricanes berth at the top of the table with 12 wins and two losses is a sharp contrast to his time with the 1992 Magpies, when they managed to retain division one status with two wins. Despite that Plumtree has fond memories of his 11 first class games for the Bay and club rugby with Taradale.

"There were some fantastic characters ... players like Romana Graham, Orcades Crawford and Jarrod Cunningham," he recalled.

Plumtree, who also played 40 games for Taranaki from 1985-89, was an unsuccessful applicant for the Magpies coaching job 14 years ago. That was was when he took on a short-term video analysis role with the All Blacks before coaching the Wellington Lions.

His other coaching roles have included stints with South Africa's Sharks and forwards coach of Ireland.