Mental challenge tough for Auckland

By JULIE ASH

Auckland coach Wayne Pivac says getting his side "up mentally" will be the challenge ahead of their semifinal clash with Otago at Carisbrook tonight.

They are fresh from their 40-31 Ranfurly Shield win over Canterbury. Pivac said the big thing for his team will be "putting the Ranfurly Shield out of our minds".

"Now we have to start thinking about another trophy, the NPC, which we would like to win again," Pivac said.

"We know it is not a matter of defending it, we have to go out and win this weekend and then win the weekend after."

Pivac has named an unchanged lineup from that which started the shield game in Christchurch last weekend.

Once again an injury cloud lies over talented second five-eighths Sam Tuitupou, who has struggled for most of the season with a shoulder injury.

The hard-charging Tuitupou made an immediate impact for his side against Canterbury and Pivac said they will wait until the last minute to decide if he will take the field against Otago.

"He'll travel down with the team and we'll make the call as late as Saturday morning," he said.

The team were beaten 6-3 by Otago back in round one and Pivac admits he and his coaching staff take some responsibility for the loss after changing tactics on the night of the match because of cold, wet weather.

"I think no matter what the conditions are this time we will be trying to express ourselves.

"We have tweaked things a little bit from the Canterbury match, but we won't be straying too far away from that game plan."

He said Otago's strength obviously lies with their front row, made up of former All Blacks Joe McDonnell, Anton Oliver and Carl Hayman.

"We know that at set-piece time they are going to be very strong. We are going to have to work hard in those areas to get enough possession to play with the ball.

"They have also got speedy loose forwards in Josh Blackie and Sam Harding, so it is going to be a big job up front first and foremost, but then I thought we played pretty well in those areas last week. So we'll need another big performance there."

They have got very strong first five-eighths/second five-eighths combination in Tony Brown and Seilala Mapusua, and Pivac also rated Ryan Nicolas at centre.

"I think they are a solid sort of side. But if we get enough possession we'll certainly look to have a go on the outside."

Running in six tries against Canterbury had given Auckland a significant boost in confidence, he believed.

"We have felt right throughout the season that our young guys have had the potential. We just hadn't put it together as a team over 80 minutes ... which had been frustrating for us because we had sort of done enough to certainly win against some sides."

NPC points table