and to prove my admiration in his style, here is his letter to members in full:
Against the Rebels, we didn’t have the same edge that we’ve had in previous weeks. I think we’ve played five high intensity games since the break and we’re not a side that’s been used to doing that consistently. It’s done now and we’ve got to bounce back from an attitude point of view.
We’ve seen where we went wrong and it was at the ruck. We didn’t own the space around the ball enough – that’s all connected to attitude, it’s pretty simple really. We didn’t have good body height and we weren’t aggressive enough and they were able to spoil a number of situations.
We need to be better at the attacking and defensive rucks. We were excellent against the Chiefs and in the games since then, there’s been good intensity but there’s been a bit of dropping off in that area nearly every game. That’s something we’ll look at before the Crusaders game. Where we’re at in our development, these sorts of things are going to happen. You go alright, then maybe not so good, then you hit a run. You feel like you’re going well and you’re getting reward for what you do, then it goes down and you learn from it.
One of the positives is that we’re the least penalised team in the competition. I think in that game we only had seven or eight penalties against us. Sometimes decisions didn’t go our way but you earn that when you’re going forward. We’ve got to make sure we stay disciplined, its fundamental to winning games.
It’s my first game in Christchurch so I don’t know too much about what’s gone before. We’ll just get stuck in, get that intensity and look forward to it like it’s a Grand Final for us. No-one ever seems to go there and win; we're up against a team that has won more Super Rugby titles than anyone else. I don’t think there’s many that give us a chance to win over there, and I don’t think our opposition will consider us as a threat so we’ve got to go over there and announce ourselves.
For all the talk of the table and finals, to us they’re irrelevant - it’s never been about anything except the next game. All that matters is that we’re going to Christchurch wanting to play a really good game, get physical and make sure we create the kind of atmosphere and intensity that we want to create. It’s our first year together and we’ve still got a lot to gain in the tournament, there’s still a long way to go and you never know what is going to happen.
I wanted to have a look at Rob Horne again this week before we decide how to fit things in. He’s been playing well and he didn’t really deserve to miss out last week but we looked at a different shape with Berrick in against the Rebels. I couldn’t say conclusively that that shape delivered – we didn’t win did we? We’ve got a few things that we’re going to try and do this week around our game so we’ll see who’s best at delivering that. They’re a particular team, Canterbury, and there are a few things that we’ll have to do very, very well.
If we can get those things right and bring the right intensity to it, we’re a chance.
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