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The ‘harsh truths’ Wellington had to confront before NPC quarter-final

Jackson Garden-Bachop of Wellington looks on in disappointment after a Hawkes Bay try during the round nine Bunnings Warehouse NPC match between Wellington and Hawke's Bay at Sky Stadium, on October 05, 2024, in Wellington, New Zealand. (Photo by Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)

Wellington may have finished in top spot on the National Provincial Championship standings, but the Lions still have a point to prove this coming Friday. Two weeks after they met in the regular season, the Wellingtonians will host Counties Manukau in the NPC quarter-finals.

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In one of the upsets of the season, Wellington were beaten by a mammoth score in Pukekohe. AJ Alatimu broke the deadlock with a penalty goal in the 12th minute, and that’s when the floodgates opened for Counties during a one-sided first half.

Kauvaka Kaivelata, Alatimu and Ian Wester-Stevens all crossed for a try each as the hosts ran away to a 24-nil half-time lead. They continued to pile on the points after the break, with a barrage of tries seeing the underdogs take a 48-nil advantage.

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Peter Umaga-Jensen and Jeremiah Avei-Collins scored tries for Wellington inside the final 10 minutes as they avoided a shutout loss in the regular season fixture. That ended up being one of their two losses in the round-robin, with the Lions falling to Tasman a fortnight earlier.

In the lead-up to the NPC playoffs, Wellington playmaker Jackson Garden-Bachop was asked about the challenge that awaits the Lions at Sky Stadium. The Lions took “some harsh truths” from that 51-12 loss, but the team are ready to embrace a chance to claim some revenge.

“The team’s feeling really good. We’re pretty excited to get another crack at Counties after… what happened a couple of weeks ago,” Garden-Bachop said on SENZ’s The Run Home with Kirst & Beav.

“We played well against Hawkes Bay, we’re happy with that game so hopefully we can build on that going into Friday night.

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“There were some harsh truths that we had to face around some of our effort and intent areas which we sort of pride ourselves on so we took a good look at that,” he added.

“In terms of our actual game and how we want to play the game, it was pretty easy to dump because we didn’t really get to do anything that we wanted to do.

“There were some good things that we looked at and took from it but we moved on pretty quickly.”

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Wellington have been boosted by the return of some marquee players, with 14 All Blacks being released to play for their respective provinces in the playoffs. The Lions have a highly-rated quartet returning, including veteran halfback TJ Perenara.

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Ruben Love, Asafo Aumua and Billy Proctor are also available to suit up for the Lions in the first of four NPC quarter-finals. As for Counties, they’ll have Cam Roigard among their ranks as they plan to break Wellington’s hearts for a second time.

“It is a blessing that we’ve got a lot of good players that can come back from higher honours but it doesn’t matter on the day if we don’t play well,” Garden-Bachop explained.

“We had a stacked team two weeks ago against Counties and we got dusted, so we need to make sure we turn up regardless of who’s wearing the jersey.”

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N
NB 24 minutes ago
Why Les Kiss and Stuart Lancaster can lead Australia to glory

https://www.london.edu/think/how-claudio-ranieri-transformed-leicester-city


He jts knew how to use that deep well of knowledge accumulate over many years of management. A true Moneyball story!

166 Go to comments
f
fl 32 minutes ago
Why Les Kiss and Stuart Lancaster can lead Australia to glory

“Two comparable achievements 15 years apart (at different clubs in different leagues) represent failure and not continued success for an elite level coach/manager? Not even a hint of consistency? Just gradual, inevitable decline? And all because he is in his sixth decade?”

Why don’t you try reading what I wrote before you start inventing a load of other random things that I didn’t say. I said “Pep hasn’t gotten better with age”. He hasn’t. I don’t think he’s got much worse, and yeah, he’s been fairly consistent over his career and has had more success than almost any other coach. But he hasn’t gotten better.


“You’ve missed that Mourinho’s early start in football was as a translator for Bobby Robson (ironically a much older manager at the time!).”

I was actually aware of that. I didn’t mention it because it wasn’t relevant to the fact that Mourinho - aged 52 - had more experience than Arteta does at 43. It also isn’t ironic that Bobby Robson was a much older manager at the time - it actually confirms by point that a lot of the top football managers used to be older than they are today.


“You suggested that Les Kiss would not be suited to an international coaching role because of his age profile…that seemed to relate to rugby”

That did relate to rugby. Let me walk you through the thread…


NB suggested that Les Kiss should become Australia head coach in 2027.

I said: “Given the drop off so many top coaches seem to experience as they get older (e.g. Jones, Gatland) Kiss could be a riskier appointment than you’d think!”

NB said: “Drawing a parallel with the NFL and NBA, plenty of coaches stay well into their 70’s”

I said: “Not all sports are going the same way though” then gave the example of football.


The example of football was introduced in order to make the point that the age profile of managers is not the same in every sport. If you had read the thread you were replying to you would know this!

166 Go to comments
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