He always gets over the advantage line and gives us go-forward. He's a key member of the side and has been great helping out the younger guys, |
He has to be considered, he's certainly playing well, |
His leadership has come up this year. His time in Super 12 and with New Zealand A has helped him grow as a player. |
It could very easily have got away from us at that point. Most people probably expected that it would but the guys held their focus, maintained the faith in what they were trying to achieve, worked hard and were rewarded for that. The task for us now is to try and do it again. |
It was disappointing because we just couldn't mount any pressure throughout the game, |
It's probably almost like a final for them so the acid is really going to be on us. Most of the guys can still remember two years ago up there (when Bay of Plenty won 22-13). They gave us a good going over that day. We know what we are in for. |
Our skill level let us down big time. The harder we tried the worse it got. |
The biggest thing was that our players stuck to the task and kept working on what we had planned, even when Auckland got out to 13-0 without really having played that much rugby, |
We are sad for Michael but he understands that these unfortunate things are part of the game. The key for us now is to focus on our next game. |