Rugby: Desperate times ensure plenty of intrigue

Colin Bourke. Photo / Getty Images

Bay of Plenty were supposed to have a day off on Tuesday. Captain Colin Bourke would have none of it.

He didn't call in his players for a training run, rather he felt they needed a team-building exercise. So they played laser tag, an outdoor combat game. It was backs against forwards - the backs won easily - but today they will need to go into battle together to beat a North Harbour side that have their own problems.

The Steamers are at a crossroads in their season, even at this early stage. Win, and a place in the top seven is still a possibility. Lose, and the pack will move further away.

Their start to the season has been largely mirrored by Hawke's Bay. Both were tipped to be, if not semifinalists, then at least top-seven candidates, but both are leaving themselves plenty of work to get there.

The Steamers have won only one of their four games - a 30-11 defeat of Hawke's Bay - while the Magpies have just a solitary draw with Canterbury to look back on. Only Manawatu and Otago were behind them on the table heading into this weekend's round five.

Bay of Plenty have been close to winning games. Last week's 24-15 defeat to Taranaki was their biggest - the other two were by five points or less - but also their most painful. They dominated territory and possession but crucial errors or bad options cost them dearly.

"We are just lacking patience and I think that's because we are getting frustrated," Bourke says.

"We know we are a lot better than we are showing. When things aren't going well, you tend to push things too much. The boys get a bit of steam on, the blood rushes to their heads and sometimes you just need to take a step back and just relax and let things happen. We are making errors we shouldn't be making at this level.

"We made some goals at the start of the year. The first was to make the top seven. Another was top four because we looked at our team on a piece of paper at the start of the season and there's no reason why we couldn't win this competition."

It would have helped if Mike Delany had been fit. The first five-eighths scored 149 points last season, just 10 less than Matt Berquist of Hawke's Bay, but hasn't featured before today as he recovers from a fractured shoulder.

Delany, a calm head in a pressure situation and a capable goalkicker, is expected to play about 20 minutes off the bench against North Harbour today and could start against Canterbury next weekend.

Lack of depth hurt the Steamers last season. They started the season well, winning five of their first six games, but fell away as injuries struck. They won only two more games and finished seventh.

The union hit the transfer market hard in the off-season and signed eight new players including Lelia Masaga, Taniela Moa, Brett Mather and Daniel Waenga. While they have greater depth, it takes time for a team to gel.

That has also been the most difficult thing for Hawke's Bay. The Magpies were seen as title contenders in 2010 after reaching the semifinals in the previous three seasons. But after a first-up 23-23 draw with Canterbury, a game they felt they should have won, they have since been defeated by Bay of Plenty (30-11), Tasman (21-7) and Southland (23-20).

There were some more encouraging signs against the Stags last weekend and they might have won if first five-eighths Daniel Kirkpatrick (two from six) had been as accurate as normal.

"I think it's about the squad gelling," coach Peter Russell said. "We have 13 players coming in from different areas of the country and it takes time. There are some fresh faces in there with different ideas and we are just trying to find common ground at the moment. I saw a lot of glimpses of that against Southland so we just need to move forward from that."

They have a golden opportunity to find some momentum over the next fortnight when they travel to both Manawatu and Otago. Although this competition is unpredictable - Tasman showed that last weekend with their 27-25 defeat of Canterbury - Manawatu and Otago shape as the two worst sides.

If Hawke's Bay can pick up wins there, along with another at home to Waikato, they will be right back in the mix. They will also keep their passionate fans happy.

"We are a community side with a lot of support from the locals," Russell said. "It's a bit like when the All Blacks didn't win the World Cup - the whole country suffers - and I think we are a little bit like that."