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Substitute hooker Leif Schwencke was the Manawatū Turbos’ standout player in their loss to Taranaki on Sunday. (File photo).
A spirited second half may have given the Manawatū Turbos a sense of confidence heading into their match against Canterbury this weekend.
Manawatū lost 26-17 to Taranaki at the Arena on Sunday, having been down 26-3 at halftime after a disappointing first half, but they were much improved in the second spell.
Their scrum was getting hammered in the first half and some wayward early lineouts meant they had no ball and couldn’t get anything going. But a change at halftime shored the scrum and the lineout improved.
Taranaki were on the third game of their storm week, but still had a Super Rugby-laden team and a strong bench.
Turbos coach Mike Rogers said he was disappointed in the first half, but they were still a young team who were learning how to adapt to things such as the scrum not working.
“They learnt a valuable lesson today.”
They were thrown off their stride when young prop Feleti Sae-Ta’ufo’ou dislocated his shoulder in the warmup and Darius Mafile’o, who played for the Evergreens on Saturday, had to be brought into the 23.
Sean Paranihi switched from loosehead to tighthead and Joe Gavigan moved into the starting side.
Manawatū conceded some soft tries – one came after they turned the ball over trying to run it out of their own 22 and the other when they blew a try-scoring opportunity and let Taranaki go down the other end to score.
But Manawatū had a stable platform in the second half and were able to launch some attacks. Reserve hooker Leif Schwencke helped lead the revival, taking the ball up hard and defending well.
They scored two tries and held Taranaki scoreless in the second spell. They were unlucky not to have another try when Drew Wild was ruled to have knocked on when grounding the ball, despite being tackled early.
“I appreciate we want to win, that’s definitely what I’m here for, but you’ve got to understand the enormity of the challenge and if there’s one thing that we’re non-negotiable on is effort,” Rogers said.
“I think the second-half performance demonstrated that. They tried hard and I don’t want to talk too much about previous years, but that would have been 60 points.”
He said they had been competitive in two games and despite the results there was a lot to be heartened by.
Lock-loosie Johan Momsen was physical again and threw himself into everything.
Others to stand out were Brayden Iose at No 8, Kyle Brown in midfield and Gavigan. Prop Flyn Yates was busy off the bench too.
Loosie Terrell Peita played his first game, having been brought in as a loan player from Auckland to cover for TK Howden, who was still suffering the effects of concussion.
Veteran back Jason Emery (hand) and new lock Stan van den Hoven (knee) played their first game after recovering from injury.
Flanker Elyjah Crosswell broke his wrist at training on Friday, so apprentice player Julian Goerke was brought in and came off the bench.
Hooker Raymond Tuputupu, who was concussed in the opening game, should be available this week, but flanker Johnny Galloway is still recovering from a hamstring injury.
Taranaki 26 (Penalty try, Jesse Parete, Matt McKenzie, Meihana Grindlay tries; Jayson Potroz 2 con) Manawatū 17 (Flyn Yates, Brayden Iose tries; Brett Cameron pen, con, Isaiah Armstong-Ravula con). HT: 26-3.
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