RUGBY - Plenty of `what ifs' for Northland to mull over

Change is good, but the Northland rugby team might throw the baby our with the bathwater, says former Northland and NZ Colts coach Bryce Woodward ... The Northland game against Waikato was very much a mirror image of the complete season for the 2007 Northland Air New Zealand Cup side
The team were combative, very physical, they played with a lot of heart and soul and they played for the full 80 minutes.
Unfortunately, it was littered with mistakes that let the team down at crucial times, and once again they ended up being close to a good side, but not close enough to nail a victory.
The season could be described as a series of "what ifs".
What if the scrum had been stable for 80 minutes of every game? What if the lineout had been more consistent? What if we hadn't slipped off a couple of crucial tackles in various games?
At the end of the season it is time for review, and while I'm not close enough to either the team or the Northland Rugby Union administration to know the futures of the coaches and players, it is worth a quick reflection so that we know where to look to improve matters for next year.
Firstly, it must be said that the coaches have made a huge difference to the Northland team over the last two years.
While we are frustrated by the close losses, this is a significant improvement from convincing losses from the previous two years prior to Mark Anscombe and Bruce Robertson taking over.
By the combination of recruitment, selection and progression, this team is now competitive with all teams in the Air New Zealand Cup.
I'm therefore hopeful that both of these coaches will be retained, so that the final pieces of the jigsaw can be put in place and we win more of the close games than we lose. If that happens, a quarterfinal place in the competition is assured.
If the recent press reports are accurate it appears that the coaches have identified that some players in the team are currently not up to this standard of rugby.
This would suggest that new players will need to be either recruited or younger players promoted and developed. While I concur with this sentiment, I believe there is a real danger that we are going to lose some of the more prominent players. That has also been reported recently. From my knowledge of the local scene, these players will not be easily replaced.
Therefore the next few months will be interesting as the recruitment/retention plan takes shape.
From my perspective, there are a couple of things I believe could have been done differently. Rhyan Caine could have been given more game time as halfback; he is a very talented footballer and could have made a greater contribution to the campaign.
John Cocker showed in the last couple of weeks that he should have been utilised more frequently during the season to compliment the other loose forwards, and also to provide more competition and to raise standards in that area.
It will be worth watching the quarterfinals with interest, and gauging whether or not Northland could have made progression at that level against some of the sides that edged them out in pool play.