Rugby: Tough challenges ahead for Taniwha

Taniwha midfielder Troy Gilbert tries to slip away from two Southland defenders during Northland's ITM Cup round two loss at Toll Stadium. Photo / John Stone

Southland 27
Northland 18

Two rounds into the ITM Cup and two games lost from two, Northland's start to the 2015 season has been less than desirable.

After a poor showing against Hawke's Bay in the opening round and letting Southland intercept Saturday's match, the dust is starting to build up at the bottom of the Taniwha game-analysis chalkboard.

Feeling the pinch, head coach Richie Harris said emphasis on navigating around Southland threats Tim Boys and centre Kieran Moffat wasn't effective enough.

"I thought the intercept try was a real blow, particularly after that charge down. You could say that was the game then and there - 14 points right there that we gifted them," Harris said.

"We identified pre-game that the two players that rushed a lot were the No7 [Boys] and No13 [Moffat]. The No7 got the charge down try and the No13 got an intercept try so obviously we didn't pay enough caution to that.

"We thought there was real opportunities in behind and we sort of put kicks in behind them but we didn't do that effectively enough."

Staring down the barrell of another tough challenge in the form of Wellington this weekend, the path ahead doesn't get a whole lot easier for Northland.

However, there are some promising signs.

With their scrum on the ropes against Hawke's Bay in round one, the Taniwha managed to engage better at scrum time against Southland.

Coupled with the positives that their lineout continues to produce, the platform for success around executing the set piece is right in front of them.

"If we can build on another couple of weeks of good scrum stability then we can start to launch things off it," Harris said.

"Hopefully we continue building on that scrum power because, at the moment, we are not launching much from it. The attack is still struggling a bit and we probably played far too much rugby in our own area. We probably went away from what we'd talked about and played way too much rugby in our own critical zone."

Northland co-captain Matt Moulds can feel the tide turning at his team's heels.

"We've got high standards and it was disappointing last week to challenge the Ranfurly Shield like that so we had a pretty honest review and sorted out our set piece, which was really good," Moulds said.

"We're there, there's a few too many errors on attack but, once we sort those out, we'll be away, I think. The boys inside have to back the boys outside so it's about being smart."