Under cold and rainy weather conditions at Cranberry Field, Otago Rugby Club faced a tough Nanaimo Hornets side, dropping a 35-7 decision to the Vancouver Island club in mid-December.
Otago captain Stephen Quigley said the first half of the game, played December 9, was fairly evenly contested.
“We are still, obviously, a learning team,” said Quigley. “The thing we have been working on recently is stopping the opposition. We’ve been scoring trys. The first half was tight, with Nanaimo holding a fairly narrow lead. We’ve been working on defence so that was very good for us.
“In the second half, once Nanaimo got some scores, confidence started to drop a little, so it was a bit more difficult for us in the second half.”
Quigley said Otago is solidly a third division club and Nanaimo brought some first division players to round out the ranks. The experienced players, when substituted in, made a difference in the play on the field, according to Quigley.
“Their first division side wasn’t playing on the weekend, so in order to get enough numbers for our game, first division players came to Powell River to play,” said Quigley. “Those guys are playing week in and week out at a high level, whereas our guys are playing four or five times a year. That’s hard to compete with.
“We are a more casual type of rugby club, so we need to play third division players, not guys that are more highly skilled. I played first division a long time ago and there is a different type of mentality to the game and different skill and fitness levels.”
Quigley said there is often a difference in the way first and third division players tackle during games. While third division players often hit higher up on the body, seasoned division one players take out the opposition player’s legs, which typically gets them to ground quicker.
“That stuff comes with playing games,” said Quigley. “You can only practice so much and you don’t want to practice full-on contact during training sessions because you might hurt people.”
Quigley said in assessing the game against the Hornets, he was very pleased with Otago’s early defensive efforts. He said the coaches are trying to change the structure of play. He said players do a lot of running that they don’t need to do and the team has been experimenting with new methodologies, which they didn’t get quite right during the latest competition.
Quigley said another inhibiting factor for the team during the game was that a number of Otago players were playing out of position, due to some players being absent during the game, so other players had to move around.
“We’re not a big club with a lot of depth,” said Quigley. “If you’re missing somebody, you try to cover the best you can.”
Quigley said there were some young Otago players who had a really good outing against the Hornets and a couple of new guys who have shown up to play with the team.
“We are still growing and need more people,” said Quigley. “Having regular games would be a big thing.”
Quigley said if there could be the formation of a North Island division, that would be very helpful for Otago.
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