News

The Counties Cavaliers Selection squad were beaten 29-22 by the Tasman Makos High Performance XV in a pre-season hit out at Massey Park last night.

The home side got off to a pretty slow start, letting in a couple of quick tries to trail 17-5 at the half time break. It’s just the second time the Cavaliers have played under the new rules, so it took them a while to adjust.

A positive for coach Darryl Suasua was that they were good at the breakdown and didn’t go off their feet. They weren’t penalised in that area.

It was a better second half for the Cavaliers, who dominated the scrum in the second spell and won quite a few penalties. Tasman have been playing under the new laws, therefore they knew what to expect.

The Cavaliers looked good when they attacked, it was just some defensive lapses that cost them the game in the end.

The Steelers squad will go fulltime later in July, with the 2016 Mitre 10 Cup squad to be confirmed at a later date.