Captain Ta'avao apologises to crowd as Auckland are left 'disappointed' with performance in Premiership final
As halfback Finlay Christie ran out the clock to see Tasman collect their second straight Mitre 10 Cup Premiership title, the emotion of the season was apparent on both sides.
The Mako players chased after their halfback with hands raised before forming a red and navy dogpile; the Aucklanders could do nothing but stand with heads down and hands on knees.
The two played a brutal encounter at Eden Park, and the 13-12 scoreline in favour of the Mako was equally brutal on the home team — who had opened the gates to fans, free of charge, to thank them for the support in this season that earlier in the year many expected would never happen.
“I know we couldn’t do it, so apologies,” Auckland captain Angus Ta’avao said addressing the crowd after the game.
“Two yellow cards, some easy outs against a good side like Tasman — against any side really — is going to cost you, so we’re disappointed that it’s come to this end.
“I just felt like we didn’t get many opportunities to play in the right parts of the field and that was down to our discipline. But you look at the heart and some of the shots that were being put in on both sides, it was just one of those games.”
There was just one try scored in the match — through Tasman hooker Quentin MacDonald on the stroke of halftime, rumbling over from a lineout drive following a penalty that saw Ta’avao sent to the sin bin.
In a match where both sides were struggling to assert their dominance and give their attacking weapons room to move, any opportunity for points became golden, and Tasman captain David Havili didn’t let his side down from the kicking tee with a conversion and two penalty goals to his name.
As Havili explained after the match, for Tasman, being able to claim their second title in as many years said plenty about the state of the union.
Congratulations @TasmanMako! ???
FULL Highlights ??https://t.co/3dPva21FcX
?: @skysportnz #AKLvTAS #Mitre10Cup pic.twitter.com/D8FFnCOfan
— Mitre 10 Cup (@Mitre10Cup) November 28, 2020
“We’ve had to dig deep,” Havili said. “We lost a lot of players to injury, a lot of players to higher honours, and we told ourselves at the start of the year we’d have to go deep into our squad. We’ve done that this year and it’s great because we’re building a lot of depth for the future.”
Given the uncertainty of the season earlier in the year, there was plenty of emotion attached to it for every team, and with the All Blacks playing during the same period, it allowed opportunities for the depth in their squad to shine.
No player did so more than winger Leicester Fainga’anuku, who was the side’s best attacking option throughout the Premiership campaign.
Fainga’anuku expressed his pride in the team.
“The Auckland side, man, the definitely gave us what we expected. It was a hard 80 and my body’s feeling it,” he said.
“With the players we have, and the responsibility they took on board every week throughout the season to be able to recover and get their body 100 per cent for the following week, it’s been massive. I can’t thank them enough and obviously it showed in the result out here. Happy days.”
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
29 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
29 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
29 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
29 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
29 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments