Canterbury reflects ahead of Auckland NPC clash

OPINION: For the teams that make the final, the NPC is a 15-week competition.

That demands a pretty robust campaign and I'd like to think we work our guys in a manner that allows them to be excited and refreshed by the end of each week.

That's what was so disappointing about our performance against Tasman on Saturday.

We had a really good, managed preparation but not only did the players let themselves down, first and foremost, but they let the wider group down too.

That's the guys who couldn't play, the management and ultimately red-and-black country – the people that get in behind them and support them. That was a really un-Canterbury performance.

There are eight new blokes in the team this year, so there's some learning taking place. But the biggest disappointment was how we, as a group, were not able to stand up and take some ownership and give us some direction.

That's the beauty of our weekly review process. There's no place to hide.

The review is all about searching for growth and learning, but most of them already know the answers. As I alluded to, there are a few of our players who are still finding their way and getting used to the intensity of the competition and learning how to build up to games.

But there's a large group of them who actually know the answers and they were very evident in the review and they'll now have time to reflect on that and make the necessary adjustments ahead of our match against Auckland on Saturday.

One of the big things is decision-making. If the initial decision is poor, that impacts on a number of things as play unfolds.

And on Saturday our initial decision-making was pretty poor. Also Tasman targeted us around the breakdown and cleanout work and while they got away with a lot of stuff, we didn't deal with it at all well. We were fragile in that area.

On a more positive note, I'd like to congratulate Matt Todd and Sam Monaghan on playing the full 80 minutes for Christchurch in their club final win over Burnside on Sunday. It's a credit to their conditioning that they were able to back up just a day after playing a full game for us against Tasman.

As a loose forward, Matty gets battered around, but it shows that if you're conscientious in your recovery that playing again within 24-hours is possible.

* Rob Penny is the coach of the Canterbury ITM Cup team.

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