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'That's the word that sticks out': Aaron Mauger questions Moana Pasifika's mentality

(Photo by Fiona Goodall/Getty Images)

After losing to the Chiefs 71-5 in the pre-season, Moana Pasifika seemingly had made drastic improvements when they finally played their first ever Super Rugby Pacific clash against the Crusaders.

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Against the Aotearoa champions, Moana Pasifika had pushed the Crusaders in a competitive fixture, despite going down 33-12, that highlighted the potential of the new franchise.

Given the chance to rectify the pre-season result against the Chiefs at the same ground, Moana Pasifika ended up on the wrong end of another lopsided score by 59-12.

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Aotearoa Rugby Pod | Episode 25

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Aotearoa Rugby Pod | Episode 25

In his post-match assessment of the game, head coach Aaron Mauger questioned the mentality of his side and the lack of intensity as the Chiefs ran in nine tries to two.

“I think the big one was probably the mentality. That’s the word that sticks out. And intensity,” said Mauger.

“We just dropped off too easy and it was like a bit of a training run at the end of the Chiefs.

“You’ve gotta give credit to them, they put us under a lot of pressure early. Giving away so many penalties in that first half really gave them the opportunity to keep putting pressure on us and it just took a lot of energy out of us.

“We’ve gotta be better than that. I thought we trained harder and better than that, to be fair. It was a pretty disappointing performance in the end.”

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The first half had been decent in Mauger’s view, but lamented his side’s attacking efficiency inside the opposition 22 where the Chiefs were able to repel them multiple times.

“Yeah it had been [a good first hour of rugby]. We got opportunities to get down there and we’ve gotta nail our set-piece, gotta nail those attacks close to the line. Chiefs did well, they held us out, but we’ve got to be better,” he said.

“If we want to be serious about competing in this competition, we’ve got to be much better in those areas.”

Mauger believes his team is capable of much better and attributes the lack of intensity in the disruption to this week’s preparations as the side left the Queenstown bubble and returned back to families for an emotional re-union.

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Moana Pasifika were the last side to leave Queenstown after staying there to play the Crusaders in Dunedin after completing isolation following an outbreak within the squad.

“I don’t think there’s a lack of desire in this team. I think the mentality starts around your preparation. I thought we were really well set up. Our last intense rugby session was on rugby and then we’e flown back and there’s been some emotional reconnection with home and all those things which does take energy,” he said.

“I think that certainly played a factor for us. I know our guys will be really disappointed with that because we’re so much better and the feeling within the group is we’re so much better than what we put out there tonight.

“We know it’s in us – and we showed them it’s in us for periods in the game. But the lesson at this level is it’s gotta be on for 80 minutes.

“What it looks like out on the field is make a tackle, roll away, get back on your feet, make a tackle, get up, go through [and] put pressure on the ball. And it’s doing that
over and over again.

“So when we start to cop out at times and give away easy penalties, bam, we’re defending outside our 22 and these New Zealand teams are lethal when you give them
that many opportunities. So the scoreboard was a result of that pressure but we can be so much better.

“I don’t think there’s a lack of desire, I think probably just somewhere in our prep over the last 48 hours, we haven’t quite been where we needed to be to set that performance up.”

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J
JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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