Rugby: Shield safe but work still to do

Magpies first five-eighth Ihaia West on his way to succeeding with all eight of his attempts at goal. Photo / Paul Taylor

Magpies 48 North Harbour 32 Ranfurly Shield defence

Speak to Hawke's Bay Magpies first five-eighth Ihaia West's goalkicking coach Peter O'Shaughnessy and he will tell you there's a fine line between West rushing or being too slow.

"He found his groove tonight," O'Shaughnessy said, after West succeeded with all eight of his attempts at goal as the Magpies retained the Ranfurly Shield with Saturday night's 48-32 fourth-round ITM Cup victory against North Harbour.

This shaky win, at Napier's McLean Park, was the Magpies' ninth in their latest tenure and saw them leap ahead of Waikato to be third behind Auckland and Canterbury on the list of the most Shield wins. Player-of-the-match West was quick to praise former Magpies pivot O'Shaughnessy for his tips.

"OSH told me to slow down. I did and it made my kicking a bit smoother ... during the first couple of weeks I was trying to rush things."

West hasn't missed any of his past 14 attempts at goal. Equally impressive on Saturday night was his general play, which included a clever crosskick for centre Richard Buckman to score, and his 12 tackles.

"I was pretty stoked. I knew I didn't miss any kicks at goal ... I just didn't know how many," West said as he obliged the autograph hunters.

"We talked about accuracy and while there were some pretty good patches there were also some poor ones. We won't be short of work-ons come Monday ... our defence, in particular, was pretty poor," West said, referring to the 32 missed tackles.

"It's a case of back to the drawing board so we can play better," he added.

Magpies head coach Craig Philpott was equally disappointed with the display.

"Normally, I would be happy when we score 48 points and retain the shield. But I'm not happy tonight. Conceding 15 penalties, nine of them kickable, is poor and we were fortunate their goalkicker had an off night," Philpott said, referring to Harbour first five-eighth Daniel Halangahu who missed six of his nine attempts and left 11 points on the track in the first half.

"I know we're not going to have the perfect game all the time, but the boys will be disappointed with that one," Philpott said, before checking his injury list, which added to his concerns.

Captain and No8 Brendon O'Connor who, like Buckman, celebrated his 100th first class appearance with a try, collected a head gash, which required stitches, and a shoulder injury. While he is expected to make Friday night's flight to Christchurch, hooker Ash Dixon is doubtful with a shoulder injury and Buckman is also doubtful with a rib injury.

That the Magpies scored six tries as they secured maximum Championship points for the fourth time in as many matches was pleasing. Close behind West in the battle for player-of-the-match honours was flanker Tony Lamborn, who again enhanced his chances of a Super Rugby contract with 13 tackles and an average gain of 6.8 metres from his 11 carries.

Fellow flanker Tom Stanley, who was impressive earlier in the comp, will be disappointed with his five missed tackles.

Unwanted All Blacks fullback Israel Dagg proved he has shaken off the disappointment of missing World Cup selection with a try from a counter attack, an average gain of 6 metres from 16 carries, five tackles and three defenders beaten.

His only negative was one unsuccessful aerial reception. Harbour's best were captain and halfback Bryn Hall, second five-eighth Michael Little and blindside flanker Chris Vui.

"We didn't capitalise on all our chances. We'll also have to look at our defensive systems," Hall said afterwards, referring to Harbour's 23 missed tackles.

Harbour won't be the only team addressing defensive issues this morning.