Wellington boss calms 'entertainers'
Tue, 14 Oct 2008 09:24
Wellington coach Jamie Joseph is looking to build more patience on attack amongst his players this week, as they prepare for their Air New Zealand Cup semifinal against Southland on Friday.
The Lions were at their 'entertaining' best against Taranaki at the weekend as they ran in seven tries in a 50-30 quarterfinal victory at the Westpac Stadium.
Joseph however, as well as the players, were unhappy with the amount of turnovers they conceded, and the fact that they failed to put the game to bed until the dying minutes.
"I think individually we played very well but I thought collectively as a team we let ourselves down in certain areas," Joseph told Sportal New Zealand.
"That we didn't capitalise on our line breaks is one area where we have capitalised on earlier in the season. It's certainly something we'll be working on this week."
"We breached their defensive line in that first 15 to 20 minutes four or five times yet the ball went missing.
"You call it entertainment, I call it frustration. The thing the players need to learn is that when they breach they need to be patient because there are another 14 guys coming. They just need to wait.
"They are an extremely talented lot and they're always looking to attack but if you attack and don't score any points it's a waste of time so that's what we've got to get better at," he added.
Lions captain Piri Weepu on the other hand is certainly not keen for the team to shed their tag as entertainers during this late stage of the season.
"If we change it's not going to help us," the All Black No.9 said.
"If we play the rugby that we've been playing and everyone is used to it then, trying to change to something we're not used to is probably not going to help.
"Over the years, Wellington has tried to entertain and have had that ability to attack from anywhere but we've got to work on a few things as a team."
