Maori show trench-warfare resilience against Canada
THE MAORI All Blacks may be known as a side that likes to play thrilling, high entertainment rugby, but in Oxford yesterday they showed the ability to grind out wins.
The 32-19 victory over Canada in Oxford flattered them, especially because it was the North Americans who dominated the game for most of the second half.
When reserve prop Ray Barkwell crossed the line with seven minutes to go to take Canada within a converted try of winning, it looked like a thrilling finish was on the cards. But a Charlie Ngatai try in the final minute to add to Andre Taylor’s five- pointer midway through the opening stanza ended the contest.
While it wasn’t a brilliant performance from the Maori, they most certainly needed a win in this game, especially after losing to Leicester in their opening game of the tour. Because of this, victory rather than entertainment was the order of the day.
‘‘It was difficult at times and the conditions didn’t suit the style of rugby that we wanted to play, and Canada certainly didn’t want us to play as well,’’ Maori coach Jamie Joseph said.
‘‘You’ve got to give a lot of credit to that Canadian team, they stopped us in pretty much every- thing we tried to do.’’
Romana Graham and Tim Batemen both spent time in the sinbin for dangerous tackles, while Canada’s fullback James Pritchard was able to slot penalties because of Maori misdemeanours. ‘‘Discipline counted against us again and we really struggled to adapt to the refereeing style in England,’’ Joseph said.
‘‘In every match we’ve had one or two players in the bin and you can’t win on a consistent basis if you’re having those sorts of problems, and overall, two out of three [wins] is a fair indication of how we performed.
However, Joseph wasn’t so sure the yellow cards were warranted. ‘‘I didn’t see the first one, saw the second and thought it was more of a reaction to how spectacular that incident was, with the challenge in the air. It is frustrating because what could have happened was that we could have lost that game and we’ve got a proud legacy and a proud record. We don’t like losing. Having said that, we got away with the win in the end.’’
Canada coach Kieran Crowley felt his side should have come away with the result. ‘‘ It was a close one, they scored that try at the end and we were just six points behind then, so it could have gone either way.
‘‘Our boys were a bit tentative at the start and gave away too many penalties and the Maoris got up.
‘‘At halftime we were 10 points down, we gave away a few points from our kicking game and we changed that at halftime, got back into the game and it was what it was in the end.’’