'It is a little bit of immaturity': Moana Pasifika coach's stern message to squad
Moana Pasifika assistant coach Filo Tiatia has called on his squad to improve their discipline ahead of their mid-week clash with the Hurricanes in Wellington on Tuesday.
Moana Pasifika slumped to their fifth defeat in six matches on Friday when they fell to a 37-17 loss at the hands of the Highlanders at Forsyth Barr Stadium to plummet to the bottom of the Super Rugby Pacific table.
Ill-discipline has sat at the forefront of the issues stemming from their latest defeat, with the new expansion franchise conceding 16 penalties to the Highlanders’ five.
That enabled the hosts to pile on the pressure through their set piece as they scored six tries and ran out as comfortable winners.
With only four days to fix their disciplinary issues – which resulted in two yellow cards in Dunedin – leading into the Hurricanes match, Tiatia said that a message has been sent to his playing group, and the franchise as a whole, to improve their standards.
“I think we’ve made it pretty clear with the group – all of us together, not just the players, but the management and as an organisation – that we’ve really got to be disciplined about what Moana Pasifika stands for,” Tiatia told media on Monday.
“Giving unnecessary penalties away is not our standing point.”
Tiatia’s comments come after halfback Ereatara Enari, who is part of Moana Pasifika’s leadership group, said in the wake of the loss to the Highlanders that the inexperience of the squad has hurt their ambitions thus far this season.
More than half of the contracted squad hadn’t played Super Rugby until this year, and injury and Covid replacements have added to the vast inexperience evident within Moana Pasifika’s roster.
Enari said that, combined with a rigorous playing schedule that will see Moana Pasifika play three games in eight days on two separate occasions due to Covid-enforced fixture rescheduling, has made it difficult to play as well as they’d have liked.
Tiatia resonated with Enari’s sentiments, saying there is a sense of “immaturity” about the way in which Moana Pasifika have played this season.
He said that, given the quality of opposition his side have faced and will continue to face this season, disciplinary improvements must be quickly implemented both on and off the field if Moana Pasifika are to turn their fortunes.
“I think the first thing is that everybody can control the things that they can, and it’s really just around how we mature as a group,” Tiatia said.
“A lot of the things that we are doing you could say that it is a little bit of immaturity, so just around how we learn and acceleration of learning, particularly at this level.
“It’s pretty close to test match footy when you’re playing at full optimum and everyone’s at full capacity. It’s an area that we’re, as individuals and as a collective, we’ve just got to keep helping each other in that space.
“It’s an area definitely around discipline, not just on the grass, but it’s also just around living some of our values within our team, that the boys are keeping each other accountable, so that’ll definitely help.”
Few players exude as much experience and maturity (and can thus help fix his side’s discipline woes) as ex-Wallabies playmaker Christian Leali’ifano does.
It’s for that reason that the Moana Pasifika first-five has been named to captain the side for the first time against the Hurricanes at Sky Stadium.
Leali’ifano, the 26-test Wallaby and Super Rugby centurion, is one of six players retained in Moana Pasifika’s starting lineup from last weekend and fills the captaincy void left by the injured Sekope Kepu.
Kepu finished the Highlanders match with his arm in a sling after damaging his shoulder, with MRI scans set to reveals the full extent of his injury later this week.
Tiatia said Leali’ifano stood as a natural replacement Kepu given his leadership qualities as Moana Pasifika prepare for a bite back from the Hurricanes after having shocked the Wellington-based outfit in Auckland two-and-a-half weeks ago.
“He’s a very natural leader. He’s captained at the highest level, he’s captained at the Brumbies, and also with a leadership role with the Wallabies,” Tiatia said of the 34-year-old.
“The biggest strength that Nu [Leali’ifano] has for this team is, like you said, his experience but also the amount of energy he tautuas to the group, like he gives, and it’s really important.
“We’ve got total confidence around how he leads, particularly off the field, and what he brings on-field on the grass, just around cohesion, calmness, being really clear on when he needs to talk, but also using his assistants and leaders and working together.”
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 …
27 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!😭😭😭 !!!
27 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
27 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.
27 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.
27 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