For the teams that make the final, the ITM Cup is a 15-week competition.

That makes for 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 that 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's 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 when the going got tough.

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 that are still finding their way and getting used to the intensity of the competition and how to build up to games.

But there's also a large group in the squad that actually know the answers, and this was 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 clean-out work and while they got away with a lot of stuff, we didn't deal with it at all well. We were pretty 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 so much but it shows that if you're conscientious in your recovery that playing again within 24-hours is possible. Matty's contribution for Christchurch was massive and Monners wasn't far behind him.