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'There's no point sulking': Dane Coles calls for honesty among Hurricanes teammates and coaches amid poor season
By
Sam Smith
Hurricanes hooker Dane Coles has called on his teammates and coaches to be honest and up front on what is going wrong for the lowly Wellington franchise this season.
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In the wake of their 27-17 defeat to the Blues in Auckland on Saturday, the Hurricanes find themselves rooted to the bottom of the Super Rugby Aotearoa standings with one win from five matches.
Trailing the second-placed Blues by nine points, Jason Holland’s side need to win all three of their remaining matches and hope other results go their way to keep their slim hopes of playing in the competition’s final alive.
That begins this Sunday when the Hurricanes host the reigning champion Crusaders, who are reeling after their shock defeat to the Highlanders last Friday.
However, if his side are to have any chance of following in the Highlanders’ footsteps this weekend, Coles told Stuff the Hurricanes need to frankly assess themselves as they stare down the barrel of a wooden spoon campaign.
“There’s no point sulking, that’s not going to solve anything,” the 34-year-old rake said.
“If you’re honest about your game, honest about your preparation and honest with your feedback and use that as a way to get better and fix things, then you give yourself the best chance on the weekend.
“If you’re sluggish about it, whinge, then you’re not doing anything for yourself or the team.
“As the leaders and coaches we’ve got to drive that. We’ve got to meet it head on but do it in the right way, in an honest way, because honesty will be the best way forward for us.”
That isn’t to say Coles and his colleagues have given up hope of improving their dire record this season, even if their chances of making the final on May 8 grows more and more unlikely as each week passes.
“There’s always belief, I always believe that we can win,” Coles told Stuff.
“The important thing for us is learning from how we lost this game and then plan accordingly for the Crusaders and I will always back my team.”
