Rugby: Scoreboard fair reflection of mediocre game

The only beauty of yesterday's clash for Andrew Van Der Heijden was the win. Photo / Greg Bowker

There was no energy, spark, life or belief.Mark Anscombeby Wynne Gray The scoreboard said Northland were half as good as Auckland. That was about fair in a match which rarely got into any sort of rhythm.

Neither side, nor their coaching staff, were amused by the game yesterday at Eden Park, while the 8211 crowd might ask whether they should be entitled to free admission for Auckland's next home match.

Rival coaches Mark Anscombe and Bryce Woodward were both flummoxed by many aspects of the match in which there were meagre signs from those pushing for Super 15 recognition with the Blues next season.

Three Matt Berquist penalties to one from Lachie Munro gave Auckland a 9-3 lead at the interval and the hosts built on that advantage with two tries to one in the second half. Everyone then adjourned to the dressing sheds to debate the bewildering afternoon.

"It was just lethargic. Poor decision-making, not executing the game plan and just doing things we don't train," said Anscombe.

The only beauty was the victory that kept Auckland in the top half of the points table. More of the same next round would not be good enough for a win against Canterbury.

Anscombe said the forward and back units too often worked independently of each other. When the pack got a drive going it was counterproductive to then pitch the ball wide. Support play was lethargic, handling errors too plentiful and players lost their feet at the breakdown.

"Our mistakes and errors were high. We gave away too much possession and did not build any phases. I thought the build-up was good but there was no energy, spark, life or belief," Anscombe said.

"I would put that down as our worst performance of the year, to be honest."

Auckland had to be much sharper and play smarter if they were going to do well in the national championship.

Their scrum and lineout were adequate and the defence had conceded only four tries this campaign.

All Blacks Benson Stanley and John Afoa would boost the squad to play Canterbury but they had been on restricted recent rugby diets and needed to recover from their trip to South Africa.

Northland coach Woodward agreed the game had been tough to watch.

"We struggled at lineout and scrum to set a platform and found the refereeing very frustrating," he said.

He wanted to watch the game again to make a more definitive assessment of referee Glenn Newman but wondered why there had been such confusion and slow ball at the breakdown and such a high penalty count in the game.

"We could not get a flow on, we could not get quick ball and I put that down to the breakdown."

Northland needed quick ball to build their attacks because they had battled with their set piece.

The lineout difficulties had surprised him while the scrum was always a work in progress.

"We were not allowed to play footy," Woodward said.

FINAL SCORE
Auckland 26
Northland 13