NPC is rugby's heart

By GREGOR PAUL

After watching his side squeeze into the NPC semifinals in front of a packed Yarrow Stadium yesterday, Waikato coach John Mitchell hit out at the New Zealand Rugby Union's determination to downgrade the NPC.

The former All Black coach, himself a veteran of more than 100 games for his province, is pushing the line that if something ain't broke, don't fix it.

He said: "It's a great competition and not something I think we need to tinker with. For the life of me I can't understand why we will continue to take top professionals out of the NPC. The NPC has always been about development and the fruit of our rugby, and we have got to be very careful."

Accusations of the pot calling the kettle black could fly here. Last year when Mitchell was coach of the All Blacks he vetoed his squad from playing in the NPC.

But there was of, course, the no-small matter of the World Cup, and Mitchell believes that tournament requires the players to be removed from provincial duty.

"I certainly believe that in a World Cup year the players need to leave the NPC," he said.

"That is something I chose to do in my All Black tenure."

It was a sentiment that clearly struck a chord with Taranaki coach Kieran Crowley, who served as an All Black selector last year.

A wry smile came over Crowley when asked about the issue, but he chose to play with a straight bat. "I have got a few thoughts on that but right now is probably not the right time to talk about it," he said.

It's not something that Mitchell will campaign hard to change right now because his focus will be on the training paddock this week. He believes his side needs to go up another level if they are to continue progressing. "We got involved in too many individual battles early on and lost a bit of our composure," he said.
"A lot of our little skills were letting us down. We still managed to keep in the game through kicking penalties. We blew four or five chances in the game and you can't afford to do that at this level. We have shown a lot of character in a difficult season with injuries.

"But you have got to keep winning those big games. That is what builds character and will eventually bring this side rewards."

The usual practice of conducting a body count will start today and this time the search will focus on finding wingers. Sitiveni Sivivatu has dislocated his shoulder and Solo Korovata has a suspected broken collar bone.

"We are going to have to get up again and drag all the broken bones out and see what we have got," says Mitchell. "We have got a few bodies left, not too many with much pace."

- HERALD ON SUNDAY

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