Pre-Season QBE Harbour v Waikato

In their first of two pre-season matches, QBE Harbour took on Waikato in Hamilton this afternoon. With only a short time to work with the boys since they assembled, Steve Jackson the Head Coach, had wanted to use the game to focus particularly on some specific game structures and look to embed these into the play book. Harbour started the game strongly running in two quick tries (James Parsons and Matt Vaega) before Waikato hit back midway through the Half. Josh Rowlands on debut at fullback dotted down immediately afterwards before Waikato hit back with two tries of their own to level scores 21-21 at half time.

The second half started with Waikato on top, going over twice within the first 10 minutes before Matt McGahan hit back. His try was followed by another from Adrian Smith bringing the score back to a 2 point lead to Waikato (33-35) before a final late try to Waikato finished the game at 33-40 to the home side.

Steve Jackson, never one to take kindly to a loss, was somewhat philosophical with this early hit-out. “We played with some good structure at times – but not for long enough periods. Given the work we have done to date, I guess we were satisfied with parts of what we saw. At this level, most games are won and lost on small moments – three times we put in aimless kicks, and those kicks cost us 21 points – and the game. Now is the time to learn – and I am sure we all have.”

On the positive side,  the Harbour boys came away with no major injuries – just the usual bumps and bruises. Both Nafi Tuitivake and Jordan Manihera both had strong games, putting their hands up for more action. Tomorrow the team go into a 4 day camp and the take on Auckland at Onewa Domain in their final pre-season hit out on Thursday August 6th (3pm kick-off)