Hot Toddy puts Tasman right
Mon, 06 Oct 2008 14:56
Tasman coach Todd Blackadder revealed that he was extremely chuffed with his players' response after the Makos produced a stunning second half display to thrash Manawatu 36-7 and book their place in the Air New Zealand Cup quarterfinals.
In the process, Tasman have defied many critics who believed that the team were not fit to remain in the competition.
The outfit have experienced many problems this season at administrative level, having fought a long-running battle to stay afloat financially, as well as successfully fighting off the New Zealand Rugby Union's (NZRU) original ruling to axe them from next year's Air NZ Cup.
The Tasman players justified that decision by the NZRU by performing on the pitch, and helping their side to the play-offs on Saturday.
"It doesn't get much better than that," said Blackadder, whose half-time message about calmness and composure worked wonders for his players.
"I wasn't so worried. We just focused on what we needed to do and I thought that we did that. We went back to the structure, we cut out all the 70-30s [high-risk passes] and we just kept our width and talked about the forwards keeping out of the backline.
"We stopped focusing on the bonus point and focused more on the result and there were some outstanding performances and it came our way."
Blackadder said that he was very pleased to see such a collective effort from his team.
"I thought everyone contributed ... it was a really big team performance and everyone put their hand up.
"I thought they wore down their prey and in the second half, because of their efforts, they opened up space. It's been a long time coming. They scored more tries then than they have for most of the season and it's just great to see these boys dotting down."
The coach also praised his players for the way they responded to the negative media coverage the union has endured over recent times, and confirmed that his side would be as prepared as they could be for the quarterfinal against Canterbury.
"Today basically felt like a quarterfinal, you know, it was all or nothing," said Blackadder.
"Canterbury will be a big ask, but we'll be right."
