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Peter Meecham/Getty Images
Young halfback Jordi Viljoen had some nice moments in his first start.
The Manawatū Turbos need to find a way to improve before Northland comes to town this week.
The Turbos lost 68-26 to Canterbury at Christchurch on Saturday, their third loss of the season.
They looked good in the opening 15 minutes, scoring the first try and came close to two others, but Canterbury weathered the storm and started ripping through them.
There was too much dropped ball and lapses in defence proved costly.
Coach Mike Rogers said it was a terrible game, but he took responsibility for the loss.
“It’s just a really good lesson again for our team. We had a pretty average week and I think our performance was reflected in that.
“That’s my job, to set up an environment for them to learn and grow.”
He said there was a lot of work to be done, but he was working with a group of players who were used to losing.
It was his job to change that and he had been happy with the headway the side had made through pre-season and the first game against Wellington, but they went backwards in the first half against Taranaki and the game against Canterbury wasn’t acceptable.
“It’s one step forward, two steps back.”
Manawatū are back at home on Friday against Northland so will need to turn things around.
They had a combined 28 turnovers for the game against Canterbury, which included at set piece. Canterbury had 18.
This was too many to compete and made Manawatū spend more time on defence.
Peter Meecham/Getty Images
Lock Johan Momsen put in another big shift against Canterbury.
Manawatū’s set-piece defence also needs to improve, as they conceded a few single-phase tries from scrums.
“You work your arse off for us to get a try, but then let them in for a soft one. I think if we could defend like we did against Wellington we’re going to be in games for longer periods.”
The scrum was under pressure, but they did win their own ball against a forward pack laden with Super Rugby players.
The Turbos played some good attacking rugby at either end of the game, creating some early scoring opportunities and then scoring three second-half tries.
“I’m also a realist, when they’ve got 30 or 40 points on the board it becomes easy [for us] to score”.
Manawatū scored first through halfback Jordi Viljoen, who put in a tidy effort in his first start with his distribution and crisp pass and had a good opening 15 minutes.
But Canterbury, who had wing Manasa Mataele rampaging, scored four tries to lead 28-5 at halftime, then they carried on after the break with six more.
Slade McDowall put in a brave first half and skipper Brayden Iose tried his heart out.
Irish halfback John Poland, props Malakai Hala-Ngatai and Cole Keith debuted off the bench.
Hooker Raymond Tuputupu also got a proper run after being knocked out early in his debut against Wellington and rookie first-five Isaiah Armstrong-Ravula had some nice touches off the bench.
Canterbury 68 (Manasa Mataele 2, Mitchell Drummond 2, Rameka Poihipi 2, Fergus Burke, Blair Murray, Corey Kellow, Chay Fihaki tries; Burke 6, Alex Harford 3 con) Manawatū 26 (Jordi Viljoen, Johan Momsen, Kyle Brown, Raymond Tuputupu tries; Brett Cameron 2, Isaiah Armstrong-Ravula con). HT: 28-5.
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