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Aaron Mauger will eventually lose patience with Moana Pasifika's ill-discipline

Abraham Pole. (Photo by Kai Schwoerer/Getty Images)

Moana Pasifika have defied expectations so far this year but there’s one simple area of the game that’s letting them down: their discipline.

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You could forgive the new boys of Super Rugby for not being as fit as their opposition, as well-drilled or as astute at game management, or even simply not as talented. It’s going to take some time for Moana Pasifika to get up to the same level as the teams who have been playing Super Rugby for years and years and being a little behind the eight-ball is frankly better than what should have been expected of the Pacific Islanders in their first year of competition.

But what’s made for frustrating viewing (and undoubtedly even more so for coach Aaron Mauger) is seeing Moana Pasifika hand their opposition possession and territory through ill-discipline -when it’s such an easy thing to get right.

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      Following almost every game that Moana Pasifika have played, Mauger has acknowledged that discipline has let the team down. He’s also been quick to point out that some of those mistakes come down to not necessarily being up to speed with the pace of the game at Super Rugby level.

      “It’s a massive one for us, learning the pace of the game,” he said following the latest loss at the hands of the Highlanders. “Some of our boys are coming out of pretty much club rugby last year, or had a handful of Heartland or NPC games.”

       

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      That means when professional referees get involved, less experienced players are more likely to cop penalties for things like not rolling away from contact quick enough. It’s not just understandable infractions such as that which have been a key component of Moana Pasifika’s game this year, however.

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      Time and time again, players are getting pinged for late or high tackles or simply not retreating to the offside line – something which Mauger noted following Friday evening’s 20-point loss in Dunedin.

      “[There were] a couple of technical [penalties] for us and then a couple of dumb ones: a couple of late shots put us under pressure, especially early on, which was a bit disappointing and obviously created the Highlanders’ first opportunity to score. Thought we played some really good footy other than that. Good lesson around that.”

      It’s hard to truly gauge what the lesson will be for Moana Pasifika, however, because they’ve evidently not learned from their previous five encounters.

      Mauger also noted that his men were well and truly prepared for the Highlanders to go to their lineout drive to accumulate penalties and points so it begs the question why Moana Pasifika were so quick to hand their opposition countless opportunities to do just that.

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      “We knew the Highlanders were gonna be strong around the set-piece,” Mauger said following the match. “They’ve been outstanding there all year. It’s been a real strength of theirs and they’ve gone to the maul and used their scrum really well. We knew that was gonna be a challenge.

      “But I thought we actually fronted up reasonably well there. Just a couple of technical things that [would have] helped us stay in there a little bit longer and keep them out even more. Because they did well, the Highlanders, to execute the three they did get, and that ultimately was the difference.”

      Moana Pasifika don’t necessarily have the cattle to stand up to the bigger teams at set-piece time and that’s not any fault of their own, but the obvious way of mitigating that weakness is by not gifting teams the chance to use the set-piece as a weapon.

      You can’t simply wave your hand and expect knock-ons to disappear and kicks to not sail into touch, but conceding needless penalties is simply going to put your team under duress. If you’re not able to bring a maul down legally (or at least in a way that the referee isn’t going to ping you for), then you shouldn’t be constantly swimming up the sides and taking out the legs of opposition players or you will simply add to the misery and end up having to play with a disadvantage in numbers. Twice Moana Pasifika lost players to the bin in Friday’s defeat and neither of those were a result of simply not being up to the same standard as their opposition.

      Moana Pasifika have shown that when they’re able to keep their discipline in check, they’re able to match it with the best teams in this competition. Unfortunately for Aaron Mauger, his inexperienced side have rarely shown that much composure to really put their opposition under pressure. Time and time again the head coach has lamented his team’s ill-discipline but it’s beginning to look like the issue is nothing to do with inexperience or not being up to the pace of matches and instead it’s simply down to players lacking the mentality needed to play rugby at the highest level of the game.

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      J
      JW 6 hours ago
      Western Force and ACT Brumbies looking for signs of progress in Super Rugby Pacific

      Yeah, that’s what I was referring to too. You know in that situation the kind of things that form your picture of NRL or A league etc disappear in the case of kiwi rugby supporters, where they believe they have that advantage over aus rugby.


      I have to put my hand up here. While I can see the reasoning behind a much better Reds, and even though they were good enough to win against the top 3 last year, I still don’t see them climbing (places) like you’d expect (all fair and reasonable points aside I mean).


      But yes, I asked that because I do find aussie rugby supporters unique in this example of pragmatism. Look, I still think the circumstances dictate that it is why there isn’t more support for rugby in aus (they would need to win more like anything), but it is a) the kind of outlook that made my try to think of the SR standings in a way unassociated to nationality, and b) something that should be captured somehow and adopted by everyone.


      Because I have no doubt SR died because of nationalism. Here, like with your above example, all there were for years were complaints of how better kiwi teams weren’t getting a deserved finals ranking. Now while the whole topic is complicated to get right, to have it get to the point where one side almost wants to kill it off and drive the otherside away is just not healthy.


      I honestly think there are really easy things to do that could resolve the problem (if aus rugby culture couldn’t be copied/spread lol) like having even just a few players in each others teams. SR’s getting by right now because aussies population is so big there are still enough core fans that can have your outlook (though that survey said nearly a third also support another country?), but everything changes, and if the shoe is on the other foot at some time in the future I’d imagine that problem would “remain“ just long enough that NZ wouldn’t be able to “get by”.


      There are just so many sports like SR that don’t have a parity system and end up with this sort of predictability that must be hard to ignore and get excited about. That its not down to something simple like being the richest is irrelevant. Visiting Japan it was really interesting to see how they had become supporters of these particular top sides. What do Canadians think about the Stanley Cup going to teams out of Law Vegas and Florida?

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