Last weekend’s loss to Bay of Plenty was a big wake-up call for the players after they lifted the Ranfurly Shield off Wellington a week earlier.

The Wellington victory was a fantastic result for us and the performances across the park were outstanding.

Unfortunately some of the guys weren’t right mentally for Bay of Plenty at Mt Maunganui. Our skill execution was poor and we came off second best.

We will need a huge improvement in performance against Otago at AMI Stadium in what will be our first defence of the season.

Otago have already had a crack at the Shield this season – their opening round match against Wellington. They came second in that game but it was close - 23-19 – and they would have learned an enormous amount from it.

They know they will have to take their opportunities when they arise and so will we. Ranfurly Shield matches have an extra intensity about them and often seem to be over in a flash.

We’ll have to have an attacking mindset. You can’t go into a match looking to ‘defend’ the Shield. You have to try to win it back every match and we’ll be aiming to do that.

The Canterbury team will be announced on Thursday morning and there will be changes to last week’s.

The All Blacks have picked up prop Wyatt Crockett and fullback Colin Slade for the next two weeks so that brings our All Black contingent up to eight. That’s obviously over half the team unavailable to us but we have faith in the guys stepping up. What a great challenge for them.

I hear tickets are selling well for the Otago match and the weather is meant to be fantastic. Come and see us play – it’s likely to be a cracking match and the 4.35pm kick-off makes it family friendly.

I also hope to see you at the team’s signing session on Thursday at Westfield Riccarton between 4pm-5pm. The Shield will be there so have your photo taken with it!

Thanks for your support,

Rob Penney
Canterbury Head Coach

Greater accuracy is the key for me heading into the Otago match.

After the highs of Wellington we came down to earth with a thump against Bay of Plenty.

I suppose the poor performance against BOP was magnified by the extraordinary performance the week before. It’s always difficult to take when you've played badly but more so when your standards have dropped dramatically in one week. In saying that, a number of individuals played outstandingly well and gave us the opportunity to compete.

The telling stat for me was our possession/ territory stat. We had the majority of the ball but we only had 40% of the territory which tells me we were at the wrong end of the park. We had to consistently apply pressure and get our scoreboard ticking over.

Looking forward, we have an exciting challenge again this week. The Canterbury v Otago derby is always a classic for Mainland bragging rights but with the Shield up for grabs again this week it will make for an epic encounter. Otago have had a dress rehearsal against Wellington and I’m sure would have learnt immensely from that game.

We are looking forward to it!

Tabai Matson
Canterbury Assistant Coach