Va’a fights to retain Lions job

EARL VA’A will have to place his faith in the Wellington Rugby Football Union board.

The Lions coach failed to get the team back to the national provincial rugby premiership for next year, after losing Friday’s championship final to Hawke’s Bay 26-25.

That effectively left Wellington as New Zealand’s ninth best province for 2015, having been relegated from the premiership a year ago.

‘‘The KPI [key performance indicator] was definitely to get promoted. I’ll go through my own review later on next month and I’ll prepare for that and see what the board says,’’ Va’a said.

The first-year Lions head coach, who was previously the team’s backs coach, also runs the WRFU’s high performance programme. Looking at the Lions’ campaign with both those hats on, he felt there were grounds for satisfaction.

‘‘I’m happy with how the season’s panned out around the development of players and the contribution of the players who’ve been around for a while now. I’m just not happy with the final result.’’

Friday’s decider was a further example of the the Lions not being able to see a handy lead home. Hawke’s Bay just about beat them earlier this season, only for the match to finish level at 22-22 when first five-eighth Ihaia West couldn’t kick a last-ditch conversion from the sideline. On Friday he made no mistake. ‘‘We’re all still getting over it. We were with the boys last night [Saturday night] and their families and loved ones and it was still pretty hard to talk about. We’re all still in shock about it,’’ said Va’a.

‘‘We were six points up in that last 10 minutes and I remember at least three possessions where we kicked the ball away. We were down the right end of the field and all we had to do was be patient and work for a penalty or another try, to get away from that six-point margin which I knew wasn’t enough, but for some reason we decided to kick the ball away and we’re not to sure why the players did that.’’

Nor was Va’a certain why referee Nick Briant saw fit to penalise the Lions so many times. Va’a

‘We’re all still in shock about it.’ Earl Va’a, above, on Wellington’s near miss in the Championship final

highlighted the breakdown as one area of contention, but was particularly unhappy about the rulings around the lineout drive.

‘‘That’s been one of our weapons all year and to be pulled up on two or three occasions and to have that weapon taken away from us for whatever reason, that was hard to take.

‘‘We had a lot of momentum behind a number of those lineout drives and Nick had obviously seen something.’’

The loss continued Wellington’s long-established record of not rising to the big occasions. Never mind that Canterbury and Auckland met on Saturday for the title of New Zealand’s top province on Saturday, the Lions were still involved in a final and didn’t win it.

Wellington have produced many fine players over the years, but their only provincial titles remain those won in 1978, 1981, 1986 and 2000. Va’a might not have met his KPI for this year, but neither have many of the Lions coaches that went before him.